Silver Maiden
by Necron Caelestis
Summary: An alternate take on Weiss Schnee's adventure. In this rendition, she cannot stand to abandon another distress call and she goes off on her own. Just as she is about to fall to the Grimm surrounding her, something sweeps her off to safety, something far too reminiscent of a glistening suit of knightly armor. Except that this suit of armor has a face. And that face has a name.
1. Chapter I

Silver Maiden

 _Glaubst Du an das Schicksal?_

By: Necron

 _I am a Schnee._

 _I have a name to uphold._

 _What I do now, it was never a question._

 _This is my duty._

 _This is who I was meant to be._

 _To make things right between my family and the world._

 _That is my destiny._

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE: William Hillphire, a character you will meet in chapter 13, actually belongs to a friend of mine. I wrote his character into this book in collaboration with him. His characterization is almost entirely his own. Check out "Between the Anvil and the Shield" by DarthKirby009 for a short on Hillphire's adventures while the rest of the cast are making their way to Mistral.**

 **s/12763259/1/RWBY-Between-The-Anvil-and-The-Shield**

CHAPTER I

 _Aus der Ewigkeit_

Weiss awoke with a jolt, glancing around in a panic. She was still on the transport shuttle, still en route to Mistral, where her friends supposedly were located.

 _Friends._

For the longest time, that word was foreign to her. As heiress—well, _former_ heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, Weiss could never have the kind of intimacy normal people could have. The one person she could ever rely on for anything, be it material or emotional, was Klein. And she had left him behind as well.

People who called themselves her "friends" were really no more than superficial acquaintances, befriending her only for their own advantage, to get closer to her family and, by extension, her family's money, and the power that that status brought about. Even the term "family" seemed out of reach. Dad was a complete prick and little brother turned out to be an even bigger prick.

Winter was the only one in the family who mattered.

 _And...Mom. But..._

Winter was always the one she looked up to. It's why she left home for Beacon Academy to begin with, to claim her place among the guardians of this world, guardians against the forces of darkness and destruction. After her father dragged the Schnee name through the mud with his inhuman treatment of "lesser" beings, she needed to do this, she needed to be the light to fight against the darkness.

She sighed to herself. "What am I doing with my life?"

She stood up to walk around the shuttle. It was only her and the pilot. Nothing to do, nothing to see, at least, nothing since that last distress call.

Distress. That's what overcame her when the pilot refused to go and help. And when she realized just how powerless she was, that her fate wasn't in her hands at all. She was reliant on everybody else around her, whether it was Dad's money or Winter having to save her during training or Ruby and Blake and Yang watching her back in battle.

Of course, the latter wasn't so bad. Those three truly were friends. Perhaps more like family. This shuttle was going to take her back to that family.

The sound of another distress call shattered her thoughts and she found herself wandering to the cockpit. She stood in the doorway for a second before she snapped back to her senses as the pilot shut the speaker off.

"We're not going to help them either?" Weiss said.

The pilot sighed. "I thought we'd been through this already. This is a transport shuttle, not an Atlas warship. Even if I wanted to, there's nothing I could do to help them."

She brought up Myrtenaster, examining her weapon. All six modules were filled to the brim with Dust and she had a suitcase filled with more if she needed to reload.

"Maybe not you," she said. "But I can."

"What? You're nuts. One person against that many Grimm? That's asking for trouble."

She threw a pile of Lien on the control panel next to him.

"You seriously are crazy, aren't you?"

"I'm paying you to drop me off near the crash site," she said. There was no hesitance in her voice.

He shook his head. "You are insane." He turned the ship in the direction of the distress beacon.

Weiss grabbed her suitcase, the only possession she had now along with Myrtenaster, and used some straps lying around to fashion a makeshift backpack.

"Don't bother landing," she said as she tightened her pack. "I can manage on my own."

"I'm not even gonna try anymore. If you wanna kill yourself, go ahead."

She glanced at the radar screen as the shuttle went into a hover. The beacon was located maybe a kilometer from where they were situated.

"I ain't gettin' any closer to those Grimm than I have to."

"That's fine. I can manage."

"This is your last chance for a refund."

She stood in front of the door, suitcase strapped to her back and weapon in hand, saying not a word. There were no doubts in her mind today. She would save these people. She would restore honor to the Schnee name and cement her place as a guardian of this world. And now that she had perfected her summon, that victory was within her grasp.

The door opened and she surveyed the landscape. There was a single clearing some distance away, trees and thick canopy directly below. She looked toward the distance, where smoke rose into the sky.

 _That's my target._

Without another word, she leapt out of the plane. She turned and placed a glyph directly behind her, using it to propel her forward at immense speeds. It took one more glyph to reach the clearing and another to land safely.

She was now on foot, dashing as quickly as her legs would take her through the woods. She had to make it to them. She needed to prove herself.

There was a roar directly ahead of her. Three Grimm, all of them Creeps. Easy win. More dashing through the woods and she came upon another pack of Grimm, exactly four Beowolves and four Creeps. The latter were easy as always. It was the Beowolves that were more of a threat. Each swipe from those claws was powerful enough to take out her aura in a matter of two or three hits.

But she was too quick for them, and too experienced. She had gone through all sorts of crap with Team RWBY already and this was going to be a cinch for her.

Fire Dust was her choice today and she ignited the entire group of Grimm before switching modules on Myrtenaster and encasing the whole pack in ice, finishing them off with a quick lightning strike and moving on.

She encountered straggler Creeps the closer she got to the crash site. A few Beowolves here and there as well, but single Grimm were so much easier to deal with than a whole pack.

The smell of smoke filled the air. The crash site was getting closer. The Grimm sightings increased in frequency.

Finally, she reached her destination.

Her heart sank as she looked out over a grisly landscape. Mangled bodies and Grimm still crunching bone and tearing through flesh. Did these creatures even hunger? Or was their predatory instinct for human bodies nothing more than biological programming?

Weiss found her fists clenching of their own accord. Her heart rate and breathing were through the roof.

Rage. That's all she could make out from the storm of emotions now surging through her body.

Before she knew it, she was rushing forward, Myrtenaster switched to a combination of Fire and Lightning Dust. She landed in the middle of a pack of Grimm, a mix of Creeps, Beowolves, Ursas, and Deathstalkers. In the blink of an eye, a number of glyphs surrounded her along with a gigantic one beneath her feet, centered around her. These glyphs facilitated a blast of fire and lightning toward her enemies, vaporizing most of them.

Unfortunately, there were even more beyond the wreckage, hundreds that she hadn't seen before. But she could see them now. And they could see her.

There was no time to think. All she could do was react to each attack coming from all directions. This would be like any other fight with these monsters, completely surrounded and yet coming out on top.

There was one major difference today. Team RWBY was missing the R, B, and the Y. Weiss would be on her own today.

 _But that's okay,_ she thought as she fought through the packs of Grimm as she fled the crash site. _I've always been alone. I may have been surrounded by servants and family acquaintances all the time, but I've always been alone, always the loneliest of all. If I can't come out on top now, I don't deserve the Schnee name._

She might not have been able to save those people, but she could still make it out alive. She could still move forward and do good in her life for the people around her and restore honor to her name.

From the left. A Beowolf.

"Trying to be sneaky, huh?" she said as she projected a glyph to her left and vaulted off of it before countering with a blast of fire from her weapon.

Two more Beowolves from the right this time.

"It's gonna take more than that to take me down!"

A glyph below and she was airborne, sending ice shards down into her enemies. While she was in the sky, she looked around for an escape. To the west! There was a small town in the distance. That was her way out. But that would mean attracting all these Grimm there. No, she couldn't do that, not after she failed to save those people just now.

East, then, opposite of the human settlement. She would lure them as far away as she could, taking out as many as possible before fleeing.

There was an Ursa beneath her, upon which she projected a glyph to soften her landing. The impact knocked the monster over and she drove her weapon into its face, eliminating the threat in a single blow.

She continued her mad dash through the forest, Beowolves and other Grimm hot on her heels. She set up glacier-sized barriers to stop most of them, but there were many more that were still in pursuit.

 _How the hell do I lose these guys?_ she thought before projecting a few glyphs to take flight again.

"Oh, crap!" she said as she encountered an enormous Nevermore flying straight at her. She had no time to counter and could only hold up her arms to shield herself from the giant monster.

It crashed into her, tossing her down into the canopy. She yelped as the wind was knocked out of her. Her aura was still intact. Barely, but still there. She could still make it out of this mess.

She grasped her side as she got up into a squat. Pain. Lots of pain.

 _Get up! Keep moving forward!_

She suppressed the pain and ran, ran, ran. Faster than she had ever run in her life. She needed to get out of this.

She tripped on something. No, it wasn't some _thing_. It was a—

"King Taijitu!" she yelled as she got back up and continued running. This Grimm was huge, but also fast. She had to dodge the twin snakes' strikes while fleeing. The main pack was far behind already, but this fight would surely draw them back to her position. She'd never taken on anything this gigantic before, though, not alone.

"Damn you to hell!" she screamed as she drove Myrtenaster at one of the attacking heads. She activated four Dust modules in rapid succession, fire, lightning, earth, and ice. The resulting explosion obliterated the attacking white snake's head and most of its body, but the other head was still intact. It charged her from the side and she barely managed to dodge it, slamming straight into a rock.

She shouted in pain. This kind of pain could only mean one thing. Something warm dripped down her left arm and she looked at her hand.

Blood.

Her aura had been depleted and she hadn't even noticed.

 _Dammit,_ she thought as she searched for the black snake, which continued to slither through the grass, stalking her.

One strike, that's all she would get. She readied her weapon, switching over to fire and air for an explosive strike.

The snake rose up from behind cover to attack and she countered, driving her weapon at its head and activating its power. The second half of the snake was destroyed, but using such a powerful technique without her aura active had terrible downsides. Weiss was thrown back by her own attack and she landed face up, her hard suitcase digging into her back.

She turned over, gasping for air. Already she could hear the roaring and growling of countless Grimm catching up to her. Up above the canopy, that Nevermore was waiting for her to emerge. Down here, an entire horde was itching to tear her to pieces.

"I'm not going down that easily," she muttered as she struggled to her feet. She took a few deep breaths before readying Myrtenaster. She closed her eyes, focusing her power on the ground before her. She would summon her knight today and put its power to the test.

The glyph formed on the earth just as she had practiced. But after more than a minute of concentrating, her knight would not emerge.

"What the hell is wrong?" she grunted, making a second attempt at completing the summon. Several Grimm had breached the perimeter of the clearing and were heading straight toward her. "C'mon!"

The summon failed. It was a Beowolf that got to her first, nailing her with a powerful swipe from its claws that sent her flying. Before she even hit the ground, a Boarbatusk rammed her, hurling her in another direction.

The world was blurry now, everything spinning around her. Or was it _her_ that was spinning? It didn't matter. Her head throbbed too much for anything to matter. All she could think of was how she had failed to save those people. And now, she would pay the ultimate price for her failure.

 _I can't even save myself. How could I have been so arrogant to think that I could have done anything for those people?_

She slowly rose to her feet. If she was going to die, it would be while standing. But what did any of that mean anymore?

She managed a smile.

 _Why am I smiling? Huh._

Was it delirium from all the blood loss? Or was it something else?

 _Maybe...just maybe it's time, time to let it all go. Leave it all to someone stronger than me. Winter...Winter could do it. She could succeed where I failed. She'll bring back honor to our family's name._

It was nearly impossible just to stand now. The pain, the exhaustion, it was catching up to her.

 _I guess...this is me doing penance for my family's crimes._

She closed her eyes as the pack of Grimm descended upon her. But the teeth and claws she expected did not tear through her flesh. Instead, she was floating away, flying, wind blowing through her snow white hair.

Was this how it felt to die? For one's soul to leave the vessel behind and be free? Could one feel the wind and the sunlight after death?

She slowly opened her eyes. She was looking up into an unfamiliar face, the face of a man clad in glistening armor.

 _A...knight?_

That was her last thought before her world turned into darkness.


	2. Chapter II

CHAPTER II

 _Glänzende Rüstung_

Weiss slowly opened her eyes as bright sunlight hit her face. She stared up at the ceiling for a moment, trying to remember the last thing that happened to her. She moved to sit up when a sharp pain ripped through her side.

 _That's right. I should be dead._

She turned her head, each movement sending searing pain through her neck and shoulder muscles. She was in a room of some sort, probably an inn from the looks of it. She spent the next hour or so completely immobile, trying to fight through the soreness engulfing her from head to toe.

 _What happened?_

She remembered the flight, the landing, and the wreckage. She had failed to save those people and found herself pursued by hundreds of Grimm. She was about to be killed by that swarm when she blacked out and now she was here.

She mustered the strength to sit up, swinging her legs over the side of the bed. This whole procedure sapped all of her strength and sent pain through every muscle, bone, and whatever else made up the human body.

While regaining what little strength she still had, she examined her surroundings. The room was quite large, though it wasn't exactly the kind of lodging she was used to. But she couldn't think about all that anymore. She no longer deserved the Schnee name and thus none of the benefits that came with it.

To her right was her suitcase, crushed by her fall yet mostly intact. It was no wonder it hurt so much landing on it when her aura had been depleted. Myrtenaster leaned against the wall just beside her suitcase.

Her clothes were tattered from the fight with all those Grimm. She looked at her left sleeve. There was a long gash in the fabric, exposing a scar that extended from her shoulder down to just above her elbow.

 _When did I..._

That's right. She was bleeding just before she had passed out. But how in the world was that wound healed already?

The door to the room opened and she instantly went on guard. The pain and fatigue vanished as adrenaline flooded her system. She quickly retrieved Myrtenaster and prepared for a battle.

"Ah, you are awake," the man said as he shut the door behind him. "And I see you have regained your strength."

His face was familiar to her, but she couldn't figure out where they had met.

"And you have your sword...or, whatever it is, in your hand. I must assure you, I am not your enemy."

She looked at him more closely. Yes, this had to be him. This was the face of the man who was carrying her through the sky just after she should have died. Was he an angel? Did she really die and this was the celestial being meant to guide her to the afterlife?

"Who are you?" she demanded.

"Do forgive me," he said with a bow. "I am Sir Bedivere, Knight of Kameloth. I once served King Arthur the Pendragon as one of his personal knights."

Knight? King Arthur? What was this, a fairy tale?

"You're...a knight?" she said.

"That I am, milady."

"M-Milady? What?"

"You are my lady, are you not?"

She reddened. "Excuse me, but I don't even know you."

"And yet you called to me the day prior, yes?"

 _Huh?_ "No, I didn't call to you. I called out to summon..."

He waited for a response.

"...A knight."

"Yes, and as you can see, I have answered your call. I am here at your service as you have requested, madam."

"Wait-wait-wait-wait-wait, _what_?"

"Is there something the matter?"

" _You_ are the knight?"

He raised an eyebrow.

"No. You can't be. You look _nothing_ like him!"

"I, uh, I beg your pardon?"

"Th-The thing I fought and then summoned was ugly! You, uh, well, you, I mean..." She was _not_ about to call him "handsome." No way. Not out loud, anyway.

"Not-ugly?" Sir Bedivere said.

"Yes! I-I mean, no! That's not...!"

He chuckled. "Milady, I can assure you, I mean you no harm. I merely answered your summon and am at your service until the day I draw my last breath. The oath of a knight is something that can be broken by no man. Even magic has no power over this oath."

She stared at him for a moment. When she saw him yesterday, he was clad in gleaming armor, which was curiously absent today. He was dressed now in nothing more than what appeared to be a traveling tunic, one fit for nobility, and yet without the lavishness that might be attributed to most noblemen. This knight, if he was truly a knight, was one of the humblest she'd ever met.

"If you do not mind, milady," Sir Bedivere began, "I would like to know your name."

"Oh, y-yes, of course," she said. "Weiss. Weiss Sch...Schnee."

"Lady Weiss. That is quite the beautiful name."

She reddened again, her hesitation at providing her family name wiped away in an instant. "I would like it if you didn't say such stupid things in the future."

"I'm sorry, but what do you mean by 'stupid things'?"

She shook her head. "Never mind. Just, keep your distance, okay?"

"If that is what my lady wishes, then it shall be done."

"Would you stop with that 'my lady' nonsense? It's making me feel weird!"

"I do apologize."

"And stop apologizing!"

"I apo...lo..."

There was a bit of silence between them.

"How would you like me to address you, then?" Sir Bedivere asked.

"Weiss," she said. "Just Weiss. Nothing else added to it."

"Very well."

"And...how would you like to be addressed?"

"As you have granted me permission to use your given name, it would bring me great honor if you were to return the favor and address me by my given name as well. Bedivere shall suffice."

"Very well, then, Bedivere."

He gave her a bow. "I've brought you something to eat." He made his way to a nearby table, setting down a few takeout boxes from a local eatery. "See if you can stomach some soup first."

He poured the contents of one of the containers into a bowl. He pulled out the chair and motioned for her to take a seat. Weiss looked at the table before turning back to him. He had a pleasant smile on his face, a smile that accentuated his inviting eyes, which were hazel in color, a light contrast to his straight, ear-length, brown hair that fell equally to all directions.

She gave him a courteous nod before accepting the seat, leaning Myrtenaster against the table beside her, and trying out the soup. This ordinary flavor wasn't what she was used to, having been pampered all her life with the most exquisite of seasonings, but it was quite refreshing. She imagined this must be the kind of soup that would conjure images of the "homestead" to those who had actual experiences of such a thing.

"Some bread?" Bedivere said as he cut up a loaf for her.

"I can do that myself," she snapped back.

"Of course," he said as he stepped back from the table. A few moments of silence passed before he spoke up again. "Does my presence bother you?"

"Yes!" she shot, immediately retracting it with, "No, it doesn't. You doesn't. I mean, you don't bother me. It's just..."

"I also noticed that you hesitated when you introduced yourself."

 _He even noticed that, huh?_ "I just...nothing. Forget it."

"Is there something about the Schnee name that does not sit well with you?"

She hardly knew this guy. Heck, she literally just met him. She had no reason to share such intimate thoughts with him, and yet, being this close to him, it felt like she could tell him anything. It was almost as though he already knew what was bugging her without her having to tell him.

"Do you feel you do not deserve to bear the name anymore?"

She slowly turned to him.

"You mentioned something about that as I carried you here. At first, I had thought it was nothing more than the incoherent ramblings brought on by blood loss and combat injuries, but you continued to mumble similar things as I put you to bed. You...mentioned something about failing yourself and failing your family and how you deserved to die at the hands of those monsters."

She looked down at the ground.

"Weiss, am I not living proof that those things you said are untrue?"

She turned her eyes back to him.

"Had you truly believed those things, would not your summoning me have failed entirely? And yet, here I am."

"You're wrong..."

"Perhaps. Perhaps not. Perhaps I am the response to your thoughts, the hope to your despair, the light to your darkness."

"The one behind the mirror..." she whispered.

"Mirror?"

"It's nothing."

"'Tis never nothing, Weiss. Should you feel the need to offload any burdens you may bear, I shall be there to bear them for you. Or, if you prefer, _with_ you."

She turned back to her food. This was the kind of service she, as a Schnee, had come to expect, but she no longer deserved that. She couldn't be a Schnee anymore. She had set out to restore honor to the name and failed spectacularly at that effort.

And yet, she could not ignore Bedivere's words.

The rest of the morning was filled with silence. Weiss was able to finish the soup and some of the bread over time, but none of the more solid food—meat, pasta, even fruits and vegetables—would go down.

She stood up, but the pain was back again. She reached for Myrtenaster to use as a crutch, but instead of the hilt of her weapon, she found her hand in the strong grasp of another's hand. She looked to her left, face red as could be, staring up into the hazel eyes of Sir Bedivere, Knight of Kameloth.

"Please, do not overexert yourself," he said. "Accept my help. Please."

She looked down before nodding. She hadn't realized it before, but it really was difficult to stand. That battle definitely took its toll on her body. After her aura was broken, that should've been the end for her, and yet she somehow survived. It seemed luck hadn't abandoned her completely. Not yet.

"I would not suggest lying down after having all that soup," Bedivere said with a chuckle. "We would not want you to, well, you know."

She chuckled, too. "I actually wanted to go outside."

"In your condition?"

She picked up Myrtenaster with her free hand. "You said I could lean on you, right?"

He smiled. "Yes. Please lean on me any time you need."

Weiss accepted his offer and they went to the door together. Before today, the only other people she allowed herself to lean on were her family and Team RWBY. For now, though, she needed to rest.

Bedivere opened the door, leading her to the banister that overlooked the rest of the sleepy town down below. He let go of her hand, allowing her to lean against the railing on her own. She looked outward toward the settlement.

It was a small town within Mistral's borders. From what she could tell, this place didn't serve any real strategic or economic value to the kingdom at large. It was one of those small settlements that occasionally popped up in areas that weren't infested with Grimm. But the Grimm she fought and nearly died to were not that far away from here. So long as the place remained emotionally positive, they should be fine.

"So, these, Grimm," Bedivere began, leaning backward against the rail beside her. "What exactly are they?"

She looked up at him. He stood almost a whole foot higher than her.

"On the surface, they look to be nothing more than mindless monsters," he continued. "But I suspect there is something deeper than that."

She recounted the age-old story of the origin of the Grimm, how the younger of two deities created them as the dark counterpart to the good creations of the elder deity. Although technically alive, Grimm biology was a complete mystery to modern science. They did not require sustenance at all and continued to grow in strength and intelligence as time went on.

"They're attracted to negativity?" Bedivere said.

"Yes. Any kinds of negative emotions, fear, sadness, hate, all that kind of stuff."

"A vicious cycle. One Grimm attacks, people panic, more Grimm come, people panic more, soon there is an entire swarm of these things."

"Not just that. Even after everyone's killed, their negative sentiments can stay in an area and Grimm will continue to congregate there because of it."

"But they can be killed."

"Of course. But they don't leave behind a body, so no one's ever been able to study them."

"As in, they disintegrate after death?"

"Immediately upon death."

"I see."

"No one knows where they actually come from either. Even though we've undoubtedly killed thousands of them over the years, they seem to spawn infinitely."

"And these walls, do they help in keeping the Grimm out?"

She looked around at the town walls. "I doubt it. Most Grimm can climb or hop right over. Others are strong enough to break them down altogether. And then there are those that fly."

"Yes, I did encounter that enormous bird as I extracted you from the woods."

"You fought the Nevermore?"

"No, I could not put you at risk, not after you had been so gravely injured."

"How did you get away, then?"

"I stayed low to the ground and moved as quickly as I could."

"And they didn't chase you?"

"You said they were attracted to negativity. I stayed positive."

She looked at him. "Is that supposed to be a joke?"

"Not at all. As a Knight of Kameloth, I am highly trained in the art of combat. I would bring shame to the honor of my fellow knights, and to my king, if I were to permit myself to panic at the sight of mere monsters."

She couldn't tell if he was bluffing or not. But he couldn't be. Not if he really was able to get himself and her out of that mess.

"Also," she said, "I was injured. How is there nothing more than a scar where my arm was bleeding?"

"I was trained by the best combat medic I know, a man who goes by the name of—"

There was an explosion in the distance. Weiss quickly brought Myrtenaster up to bear, fighting against the ache and fatigue. The town rapidly began to fill with panic, which would bring even more Grimm to them. She would not fail. Not this time. She'd save this town and everybody in it or die trying with her goddamned sword in her hand.

"You need to rest, Weiss," Bedivere said.

"The town is under attack!" she said. "I can't just sit here and do nothing!"

"I understand. That said, I am your knight, am I not?"

She looked at him.

"You summoned me for a reason. Because you could no longer fight for yourself. Is that not correct? Allow me to fight on your behalf this time."

"But, what can one man do against an army of those things?"

He grinned at her, breaking his previously pleasant demeanor and transforming it into one of unwavering valor. "Lady Weiss, allow me to demonstrate for you today my worth as a knight, as _your_ knight."


	3. Chapter III

CHAPTER III

 _Verzweiflung und Hoffnung_

Weiss watched as Bedivere descended the steps to the street. A bright, white light seemed to emerge from his body as he walked, outlining something obscured by the radiance. As it faded, it revealed a suit of armor formed all around him, one brilliant in design, its silver luster and golden detailing inspiring hope in everyone who laid eyes on it. The blue cape that hung from the back had the image of a great golden dragon emblazoned on its center, wings spread wide and mouth open in a roar toward the heavens.

 _"Who in the world is that?"_

 _"I don't know. Is he here to save us?"_

 _"Did anyone else see that bright light?"_

 _"How in the world did he transform like that?"_

Weiss looked all around as a crowd began to form along the sidewalks, watching as the knight took stride after confident stride down the main road to the town gates, which had been destroyed in the explosion just minutes ago.

"Citizens of the Mistral Kingdom!" Bedivere announced. "Allow this knight to be of service to you today! I shall slay your enemies and keep you and your loved ones safe! Rally behind me!"

Ignoring her pain and fatigue, Weiss followed after him, staying to the buildings to keep hidden. She noticed a number of people peeking out of windows and doors, watching and listening to the knight's words of encouragement and hope. Even she could not deny the strange effect he had on everybody. The panic that had once permeated this town was almost completely gone, in its place no more than a tiny bit of doubt and unease.

"Cast all of your burdens upon me," Bedivere said quietly as he came to a stop before the town gates. Weiss was the only one close enough to hear those words. "Come out, you filthy Grimm!"

There came from the dust and debris a great roar of a multitude of Grimm of all types. Creeps, Beowolves, Ursas, Boarbatusks, Deathstalkers, it seemed that every one of those things that had been chasing Weiss yesterday were now here to finish the job.

An Alpha Beowolf leaped from the floating ash to attack the knight head on. Bedivere stood his ground, a severe look on his face.

"Bedivere!" Weiss found herself yelling out.

He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye before allowing a sly grin to form on his face, vanishing just as the Alpha Beowolf was upon him. Weiss blinked a few times to make sure she was seeing what she thought she was seeing. Bedivere was no longer where he had been standing. Instead, he was now behind the Alpha Beowolf that had attacked him.

 _What? How?_ she thought. _Did I miss something?_

"Too slow, doggy," Bedivere taunted the Alpha Beowolf, enraging it.

The monster launched a flurry of attacks at the knight, none of which connected with him.

"You're going to have to try much harder than that if you wish to scuff my armor," the knight continued taunting. In spite of his current situation, Bedivere was completely relaxed.

 _Is that his secret?_ Weiss thought. _Is that how he gets the Grimm off his back? He doesn't have an ounce of fear in him!_

"All right, we've had enough fun," Bedivere said. "I think you should let your friends have a turn."

The Alpha Beowolf continued attacking to no avail.

"Come now, don't be so selfish." He reached over with his right hand, grasping the hilt of his sword. "Don't deny your friends the privilege of dying by my blade!"

In one swift movement faster than Weiss could see, Bedivere had drawn his sword and bisected the monster before re-sheathing. She, along with all of the townspeople watching, were stupefied. They had all seen professional Huntsmen in action before, but this was incredible. Not only did he move at speeds faster than what was thought possible, his strength and skill with a sword appeared to be unmatched, even though his equipment seemed completely standard and lacking any resemblance of advanced machinery or firearms.

"I know there are many more of you out there," Bedivere said, turning toward the still-floating ash cloud. "Don't be shy."

Dozens of Grimm of all shapes and sizes poured through the gates, striking panic into the citizenry once more and drawing even more Grimm to the area.

"I suppose it cannot be helped," Bedivere muttered as he drew his sword and prepared for battle. "I can only grant them so much hope and encouragement after all. Very well, then. This shall serve as a warm up."

Weiss watched in astonishment as Bedivere blocked, dodged, countered, attacked, and leapt around quickly and with great ease. She could see now how it was he had extracted her from her predicament yesterday and escaped the Grimm hordes completely unscathed. The only question on her mind was how in the world he was moving like this.

It wasn't as though such quick movement and strength were uncommon. Those like herself who entered into battle school to become Huntsmen and Huntresses were capable of such feats. But the level at which this man was fighting was unmatched. Even Qrow Branwen, Ruby's uncle, seemed slow in comparison.

One hundred Grimm had been slaughtered. Not a single one crossed the line Bedivere had established upon his first arrival at this spot. Each one was dead or dying before even getting close to infiltrating the town. By now, the townsfolk had lost nearly all of their fear and were verbally cheering for their savior.

Weiss spotted a single Boarbatusk that had set its sights upon her knight. She watched as it started to wind up to make a charge. She looked toward Bedivere, who was busy fighting against a number of different kinds of Grimm at the same time. Just as the Boarbatusk started charging at him, she switch Myrtenaster's dust cartridge to earth, creating a glyph between Bedivere and the Boarbatusk. The knight turned toward his attacker in time to watch it crash into a wall of rock that had materialized upon the floating glyph. He quickly moved in to finish off the creature and then turned to Weiss, giving her a smirk before resuming his assault on the remaining Grimm.

She couldn't help the smirk on her own face as she watched him go through dozens of Grimm at a time. He alone had the combat effectiveness of an entire team of Huntsmen. From what Weiss could tell, his fighting style was easily just as varied. Though armed with nothing more than a sword and armor, he was fully capable of taking on twenty Beowolves at once, countering and dodging and parrying as necessary, striking when weakness showed itself.

Larger enemies, like Ursas, he dealt with one by one, striking when they were open, delivering heavy blows not with the blade of his sword, but its cross guard. Weiss had never seen such swordplay before, holding the weapon by the blade and using its cross guard and pommel as a mace or hammer. One hard strike to an Ursa's head was enough to cave its skull in and kill it.

And then there was his mastery at dealing with a King Taijitu, that dual snake Grimm large enough to crush a house. Bedivere was undeterred by its size and strength. Instead, he went for quick strikes to various parts of the snake's body, at one point dodging swiftly enough to cause both heads to collide with one another.

"And they say two heads are better than one," Bedivere chuckled, resting his sword on his shoulder as he stood upon the snake's body.

Both heads angrily turned to him, hissing as they attacked at the same time. With a grin plastered all over his face, Bedivere switched his sword to his left hand, striking the white snake with the blade in a reverse grip and projecting some kind of force from his right hand toward the black snake.

The white head was split in two with his swift sword strike while the black snake head appeared to have been torn into multiple bits by some invisible force. Weiss wasn't sure, but she must have felt a powerful gust of wind at the same time that his right hand glowed with a pale green light.

 _What's in his hand?_

An enormous Deathstalker was next on his list of adversaries. From what Weiss could tell, this was even larger than the one she had faced with her team on their first day at Beacon Academy. She prepared herself to give him support should it be necessary, but it didn't look like he'd need her help at all, especially not when it was one-on-one like this.

"Well, this is going to be a boring fight," Bedivere said, switching his sword back to his main hand.

He dashed forward and evaded the monster's attacks before severing the creature's tail in a single strike. The Grimm flailed around as the knight switched sword hands again, leaning against his weapon like a cane.

"That was terribly dull. Here's hoping that wasn't the last fight of the day." He held out his right hand, which began to glow red-orange.

The Deathstalker caught fire and scurried about for several seconds before finally succumbing to the burning. Weiss once again took note of the glow coming from her knight's hand.

 _He's gotta be using Dust,_ she thought. _But that was different from what normally happens._

There was an audible rumble in the air, one that grew louder and louder until it became clear that the sound was being caused by the footsteps of something large and heavy.

"I'm not quite sure I like the sound of this," Bedivere said, readying himself for whatever it was that was about to come charging at him now.

One of the trees outside of the town walls was knocked over, uprooted, as a large, humanoid monster bowled it over in its dash toward the settlement. Upon closer inspection, Bedivere noticed odd shapes and protrusions from its body.

"Paladin!" Weiss cried out. "It's possessed by a Grimm!"

"They are capable of even that?" Bedivere mumbled before the possessed robot's guns started winding up.

"Get out of the way!"

He rolled out of the street, barely dodging the hailstorm of bullets and missiles from the infested machine's weapons. The gunfire stopped and he peeked out from his cover. The paladin robot was gone, but its footsteps were rapidly approaching. As he realized what was about to happen, he dove forward, evading the crashing of the town wall and the robot's attempt to crush him beneath its foot.

"Hmph," he said, switching his sword to his left hand. "I suppose it's time to quit holding back."

Weiss noticed his right hand begin to glow red-orange once more and she took a closer look. The light seemed to originate from his actual hand and not the gauntlet he was wearing, emerging from the joints and separations between the segments of his armor.

 _So it's not his gauntlet,_ she thought. _Is he holding Dust in his hand? How is he switching them so quickly, then?_

"You would launch missiles at me?" Bedivere said to the possessed paladin combat android. "Then, you should find that this shall even our match! _Teufelsatem_!"

A fireball formed in his right palm, which he hurled at the possessed robot. The blast was enough to knock down the machine and pulverize what remained of the town wall in that area. Still, it wasn't enough to kill the Grimm or destroy the machine it possessed, but from what this knight could tell, it did some damage.

Bedivere summoned a different force in his hand, causing it to glow with a pale green light. "Let's see if you can withstand this!" he cried out. " _Gewitter_!"

Weiss watched with her mouth hanging open as a bolt of lightning from Bedivere's hand struck the machine. The amount of power in that single strike was enough to scorch the ground beneath the robot and render it motionless, at which point the Geist Grimm possessing it began to separate itself to find a new host body.

"I don't think so," Bedivere said as he returned his sword to his right hand. "Water Sword Rune! _Eiszapfendusche_!"

His sword rapidly froze, transforming into what looked like a big icicle. He swung the frozen sword, unleashing a hail of ice spears at the fleeing Grimm, which was impaled by a number of those frozen shards before it fell to the ground. The knight walked up to his fallen opponent, watching as the ghostly figure gradually stopped struggling before dying and evaporating into a cloud of black smoke. He turned to his left. Weiss was also looking at what remained of that particular Grimm.

"A Grimm that can possess inanimate objects, hmm?" Bedivere said.

"Yeah," Weiss said. "It's the only one we know of so far that can do that."

"You seem deep in thought."

"That was...that was the kind of Grimm that had possessed the suit of armor I fought, the knight that I expected to summon."

"Oh. Well, I understand why you referred to it as ugly and to me as not-ugly."

She reddened.

"It seems the rest of our enemies do not wish to attack."

"I dunno. I think you killed all of them."

"I was under the impression that there would be hundreds more, given the amount of panic that surely permeated the town just now."

"What, you aren't satisfied with slaughtering more than a hundred of them in less than an hour?"

"Well, I mean, surely you flatter me! There couldn't be that many of them just now!"

"I stopped counting when you reached a hundred."

He looked past her at the townspeople starting to fill the streets again. She, too, turned around to watch them.

 _"He did it! He saved us!"_

 _"See? I told you!"_

 _"I mean, look how he's dressed! That's totally how a hero would look!"_

 _"And did you see those powers? He's a Dust-user, too, just like all the other Huntsmen!"_

Weiss turned to him. "I wanted to ask you about that."

"Yes, I wanted to ask you about that as well," Bedivere said.

"Wait, what?"

"I wish to know what is this Dust everyone talks about."

"Huh? You mean, you hadn't realized that it's what you've been using?"

He chuckled. "I can assure you that I haven't the faintest idea what this Dust material is, let alone use any of it."

 _"Hey, isn't that a Schnee?"_

 _"Yeah, definitely. She's got the pale skin and the white hair. She's gotta be a Schnee."_

"It seems everyone knows who you are," Bedivere said.

"No, not _me_ me. They just know what a Schnee is."

He looked at her. "And are you not a Schnee?"

She didn't answer.

"Did you not just contribute to saving this town?"

"No, that was all _your_ doing."

"And who summoned me here?"

She stayed quiet again.

"Weiss, please, stop this," he said as he placed his hands on her shoulders, looking into her pale blue eyes. "You have punished yourself enough."

"But..."

"No buts. Come. Join me as we celebrate this victory with the townspeople. We can talk about this Dust business later."


	4. Chapter IV

CHAPTER IV

 _Der Erste Ritter_

"We are so fortunate to have you with us tonight, Sir Bedivere, Miss Weiss Schnee. I am Mayor Godwin, but please, feel free to call me Robert."

"If it does not displease you," Bedivere began, "I would like to refer to you as 'Mister Godwin,' as a gesture of appreciation for your hospitality and generosity."

"On the contrary, Sir Bedivere, it is the two of you that we should thank today. You have saved us all."

"'Tis a knight's duty to serve those in need."

"Well, thank the gods for that."

Weiss stood in observation as Bedivere mingled with the mayor and other townsfolk. He gave them all the story she had discussed with him earlier, that he was a bodyguard that served her family and the company.

"Surely you cannot be any normal bodyguard," a well-dressed woman said. "You fought with the skill of a veteran Huntsman!"

"Madam, you flatter me," Bedivere said. "It is true, though. I consider myself a knight after the old legends, and thus, I must live the part."

"And that accent of yours. Oh, it gives me chills just listening to your voice."

He laughed with her and some of the others among them. He glanced over at Weiss, who was standing over to the side of the room. "How remiss of me. Please, allow me to introduce my charge, Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company and bearer of the family's legacy."

She flinched at the flattering introduction, instinctively accepting his gentle hand and joining the group.

"It was a shame we could not see Miss Schnee in action as well," one of the older women said. "Although, I must say, watching you do battle with those horrible creatures certainly was the spectacle."

"If only she hadn't been injured in a previous battle we had partaken in," Bedivere said. "In fact, she had taken the blow in order to save my life. How about that? The bodyguard is saved by the young woman he is charged with protecting."

"That's quite the story indeed!" Mayor Godwin said. "And I do recall having seen her aid you in the middle of battle."

"Yes. She saved my life a second time. An odd one, don't you think? She would place her own life at risk to save others, even if it is that other's duty to keep her safe."

Weiss looked up at him. His eyes were on the others in the group, but she could tell that his words were directed at her, a clear acknowledgement of her deeds.

"My, how the time goes when one is enjoying the company of new acquaintances," Bedivere said. "I'm afraid I must retire for the night. I am certain my lady also wishes to rest from her battle injuries."

"Huh?" Weiss said. "Oh, y-yes, I'm kinda tired myself. I did almost die, after all."

"That's a shame," Mayor Godwin said. "But surely you've got places to be."

"Yes, we were traveling to Mistral," Bedivere said.

"Why not take a transport?"

"We did. But then we noticed that there were people here who needed aid and, as a knight, I cannot ignore cries for help, a virtue which my lady also possesses."

"Then, we were lucky you happened to be passing through."

"Luck? No, I do not believe in such a silly idea. I believe our being here today was ordained by a higher power. We were meant to bring peace to this village."

"And peace you have brought. The courage you have shown against the Grimm today has lifted up the spirits of everyone here. I'm sure it was enough to render this place invisible to them at least for a while longer. Although, I truly wish you could stay."

"I certainly wish I could be at all of these places at once myself. But be not afraid, for the day will come when humankind shall prosper once more and will no longer need to fear such evil creatures as the Grimm."

"I hope for that day myself. Good night, Sir Bedivere, Miss Weiss."

"Good night," Weiss said with a bow before leaving the town hall with her knight, who let out a heavy sigh as they exited the building and walked out into the street.

"That was more exhausting than the battle," he said.

Weiss couldn't hold in her chuckle. "And here I was gonna compliment you on being such a professional bullshitter."

"I take offense to that. I am as sincere as sincere gets. I certainly do not enjoy fibbing nor do I consider myself good at it."

She was quiet as they headed back to the inn.

"Something tells me you did not enjoy it either," Bedivere said quietly.

"You think?"

"I have a feeling it was much worse when it came to your family. All of those strangers, each of them interested only in gaining your father's favor."

"Yes! It's like they're not even talking to me! They're talking to my money! Or, well, my family's money!"

He smiled. "Yes, I know the feeling."

She looked over at him.

"Well, I suppose I should know the feeling given that I am a knight."

"I need to ask you about that."

"Knighthood? Do you wish to become a knight as well?"

"No, stupid. I wanna know where the hell you came from."

He gave her a quizzical look.

"You sure as hell couldn't have come out of thin air, not with how you talk as though you have a life of your own."

He shrugged. "Well, do you believe in magic?"

"What's there to believe? Civilization works with it every single day. Heck, it's in this thing!" She whipped out Myrtenaster, showcasing the Dust module.

"No, I do not mean the kind of magic that exists in technology or some other arcane force of nature. Rather, true magic."

"True magic?"

"Yes. The kind which does not require Dust or incantations or runes or prayer or any other sort of ritual or technology. The kind which comes to life by mere thought alone. Making real what was not real. Granting substance to the immaterial."

"That sounds like some serious fantasy stuff."

"It does, doesn't it?"

She thought about it for a minute. This kind of power was reserved for deities and other beings of lore.

"Are you saying that I created you?" Weiss asked.

He didn't answer until they got to the stairs that led up to the first landing at their inn. He stopped at the bottom step and turned to face her.

"What I am saying, is that I am an advanced artificial construct created by you in your time of greatest need," he said. "To answer your question, I come from nowhere. Sir Bedivere, Knight of Kameloth and vassal to King Arthur, does not exist."

She poked him. "What do you call this, then?"

He smiled. "Magic."

His smile was contagious and she found herself returning it. It sounded way too cheesy, but what if he was right? What if it was "magic" that brought all of this about? Still, it was too good to be true, that magic created an exact copy of a man that exhibited all of the qualities she sought in life, a man of knightly virtue, an exemplar of valor, and one who could not ignore the cries of the weak and needy. These were the things she wanted for herself.

"What are you thinking?" he asked. "That perhaps I am a projection of you?"

She reddened. "I don't picture myself as a man, okay?"

He laughed. "That's not what I was suggesting. But, now I can't get the image out of my head of a pale man with an offset ponytail and beautiful blue eyes."

Her face grew even hotter. "Hey, what did I tell you about saying stupid stuff like that?"

"What? That you have beautiful eyes?"

"Urgh! Stop it!"

"Would you like me to lie, then, and say your eyes are horrid?"

"Just shut up!"

He laughed. "You are too easy to tease. Come, it's time for rest. Will you be ready to journey tomorrow?"

Her answer to him was a scowl accompanied by a snarl.

"Are you still mad at me?"

"I'm going to bed! And you can find another place to stay!"

He chuckled, watching as she ascended the steps and opened the door, slamming it shut behind her.

Weiss headed straight to bed without changing clothes, throwing herself face down into the hard mattress. She rolled around for a bit before settling face up. That lasted all of ten minutes before her dress started to bug her.

Sighing heavily, she got up, turning on a small lantern and grabbing a new set of clothes from her suitcase. She caught a glimpse of herself in the full length wall mirror beside the armoire and stopped. Her dress was torn in a number of places, evidence of the hard battle she had fought and lost. The gash in her left sleeve was still there as well.

Had it been any other time, she would never have gone out in public looking like this, let alone attend a big social gathering like the one just now. But for some reason, she didn't care anymore. It's not as if she were representing the Schnee family in any official capacity. Besides, Bedivere was right when he had commented that the scars gave her more personality, that she was willing to get her own hands dirty and take care of the mess herself.

 _Bedivere_.

She dimmed her lantern before heading to the window to look outside. Her knight was nowhere to be found. She wanted to go outside and tell him that she was lying, that he was, in fact, welcome in this room with her.

She sighed as she went to her bed. But instead of lying on it, she took a seat, leaning against the wall as she pulled her legs in close, resting her head on her knees.

What exactly was Sir Bedivere? Her summoning practice had nothing to do with conjuring up a real man with a real personality and with a real story behind him. She was supposed to have summoned Arma Gigas, that suit of armor that had been possessed by a Grimm and sent to attack her as a test. As a summon, that thing should have been, for all intents and purposes, mindless and obedient only to her. Bedivere met most of those criteria, but he wasn't a simple suit of armor brought to life by her powers.

He was a complete person, one with a background, a personality, with likes and dislikes, dreams and hopes. And somehow, a lot of those things aligned with a lot of her own aspirations, her desire to restore honor to the Schnee name, her desire to stop leaning against others and stand on her own, her desire to be more altruistic than she was before. She was born with everything she needed, and yet she needed to be more. That's the reason she went to Beacon. That's the reason she trained to be a Huntress.

She looked at her hands. Within her was the power to make a change in the world. Was it not her duty to do precisely that?

She leaned her head back against the wall, closing her eyes, thinking about the moment they had first met, when her body became the wind, enveloped in his arms as he carried her off to safety.

That feeling was the most comforting she had ever felt in her entire life. Those arms granted her security unlike any other, and it was more than mere physical security. It was the kind of peace and tranquility that she thought was unattainable. In those moments just before she had blacked out, nothing outside mattered, not the Grimm, not the separation from her family and friends, not her failures, not the fall of Beacon Academy.

In those few moments, she truly believed that everything would be all right. And somehow, that sensation was starting to come over her again as she drifted off to sleep.

Unbeknownst to Weiss, Bedivere was just on the other side of the wall, also leaning against it, his back and hers separated by mere inches of wood and plaster and insulation.

 _Never shall I leave you. Never shall I forsake you. Ich bin dein für alle Ewigkeit._


	5. Chapter V

CHAPTER V

 _Die Schönste Blume_

Weiss opened her eyes to bright sunlight flooding the room. She had fallen asleep sitting up on her bed against the wall, but now she was lying in bed with a blanket over her. She drowsily glanced around the room. No one else was with her. She didn't remember getting up either. That may have been the deepest, soundest sleep she'd ever gotten in her life. Ironic considering this bed was hard as a rock compared to that downy mattress she had at home.

But she may as well have been sleeping on a cloud last night given how restful she felt now. She gave herself a few minutes to fully wake before she got out of bed to wash up and change clothes.

 _Clothes?_

There was a new set of clothes for her hanging in the doorway to the bathroom along with a pair of white, calf-high boots with black detailing. The largest piece of clothing was a white princess coat with black buttons and outlining along with a thin, black fur collar. This coat would top off an elegant white and blue dress, which would be completely hidden underneath her coat. The look was to be finished with a pair of white leggings that reached up to her thighs.

 _He went shopping? Does he even have money? Forget that, does this town even have places that sell this kind of clothing?_

She set the new clothes on the bed before heading into the shower to wash herself off. She closed her eyes as she let the warm water run over her face and through her hair, taking with it all the dirt and grime. She ran her finger over the scar on her left arm. It was completely gone, smooth skin where she had once been bleeding.

After finishing with shampoo and soap, she spent some time underneath the warm stream, lost in thought. How was she able to sleep so well last night? It's not as though she had any sleeping pills or Dust to help with it. But it was so relaxing and so tranquil that she was able to forget everything again, just like the time when he had saved her from death.

The water was already cold by the time she got out of the shower and put on her new clothes. She looked at herself in the mirror. Fancy as always. But this time it wasn't her or her wardrobe manager who picked out these clothes. It was him.

Knocking came from the door.

"Weiss? Are you awake?"

"Come in," she said.

Bedivere opened the door and she sized him up and down. He was dressed in colors that matched hers exactly. His getup consisted of black combat boots with white detailing and black pants over them along with a white shirt with black buttons and detail, which was topped off by a white trench coat also with black buttons and black outline.

"It looks good on you," she said.

"Ah, so you found it," he said.

"Well, you kinda did leave it hanging in the doorway."

"Do you like it?"

She shrugged.

"So, it does not please you, then?"

She chuckled. "No, Bedivere, it's great. I do like it."

"Oh."

"Hey, where did you get the money to buy all this? And I can't be totally sure, but I don't think I passed by any designer shops around here."

"A trading caravan passed by not too long ago. They were headed to Mistral and I thought you'd appreciate a change of clothes after yesterday's shenanigans."

"What did you pay him with?"

He reached into a pocket to pull out a fistful of gold coins, each one at least an ounce in weight.

"Holy crap! Have you had all that all this time?"

"Yes. I materialized with this in a satchel that was attached to my belt."

"Uh, nobody knows you have this, right? I don't wanna get robbed while we're on the road."

"I may have been born two days ago, but I am not a fool."

"I'm just making sure."

"Besides, what suicidal maniac would wish to attack a Schnee and her knight?"

She smirked. "Well, there are a lot of stupid people in the world."

"You do have a point. Are you hungry?"

"A little bit."

"Then, let us have some breakfast. The mayor insisted on feeding us again before we set off for Mistral."

Breakfast at the town hall was loud. Apparently, the first meal of the day was always quite a public affair in this town and almost every day was like a festival. It was no wonder the Grimm mostly ignored this place. It was perpetually happy.

"As long as you stick to the roads, you should reach Mistral in a matter of days," Mayor Godwin said. "That's assuming you're going straight there and you don't get sidetracked or delayed for some reason."

"That shall depend on whether or not we will need to render aid to those in need," Bedivere said.

"Yes, of course. If that's the case, then you might take a little longer than expected. Anima is not what it used to be before the Great War. Many of Mistral's settlements were lost and never recovered."

"Perhaps that shall be our mission, then, to wipe clean the blight of the Grimm from this world along our path."

"That's quite the lofty goal."

"Yet a goal worth pursuing. Do you not agree, Mayor?"

"Yes, I do agree, but it also often feels like a fruitless endeavor."

"Even a journey that never bears fruit is still worth making. For it is not the goal that matters in the end. Rather, it is the journey itself that bears meaning. The people you meet, the places you see, the things you choose to do and to not do, those are the important parts."

"That is quite the interesting worldview. Tell me, then, has your quest borne fruit?"

He glanced at Weiss, who was in conversation with a few other girls her age. "Yes. My quest has yielded the rarest and most beautiful fruit of all."

"She is that important to you, hmm?"

"I would die for her."

"Is that your duty as a knight?"

"It's more than mere duty. It is my purpose in life, my raison d'être."

"How did the two of you meet anyway? Are you a company employee?"

"I believe it would be most apt to say that I have been a close family friend for many years."

"I see. I never realized the Schnee family kept such close friends other than government and military types."

"Well, it wouldn't be a stretch to say that I am the 'military type'. I do consider myself a knight after all."

"Yes, of course, but I was thinking more along the lines of robots and machineguns, not a swordsman in glistening armor."

"Warriors come in all shapes, sizes, and creeds, Mister Mayor."

Once breakfast was finished, Weiss and Bedivere thanked the mayor and the innkeeper for their hospitality before making their way to the town gate. Weiss decided to stop by the Dust shop first to restock her weapon's cartridges, which were running low.

"We should probably stock on extra things as well," Bedivere said, browsing through a selection of tactical equipment, including belt pouches and shoulder rigs.

"You trying to turn me into a military girl?" Weiss said.

He took a belt and a set of pouches off the rack. "Extra dust vials should fit in here. Much better than having to rummage through your suitcase in the midst of battle."

"You really do think like a warrior, don't you?"

"I _am_ a knight."

They ultimately ended up buying two packs, one to replace her destroyed luggage and one for him, also buying several belt pouches for her Dust vials.

"You're not gonna get your own pouches?" she asked.

"I do not use Dust, remember?" he said. "And besides, I've got this."

She looked down as he showed off a fanny pack. She tried to stop the snicker, but it got out and quickly transformed into full-blown laughter.

"What is so funny?"

"Nothing," she continued laughing. "Just, I never thought you'd be the type to bring a man-purse around."

"Man-purse? I beg your pardon. This is a _satchel_. And it matches my new clothes perfectly."

"Nope, that's a man-purse."

"Satchel."

"Man-purse."

"Satchel!"

"Man-purse!"

He sighed heavily. "Fine. 'Tis a man-purse."

She fist-pumped victoriously.

"Now, do you wish to mount these pouches underneath your coat or over it?"

Weiss looked at herself in a nearby mirror, ultimately deciding that keeping her coat closed was the better idea.

"Over," she said.

"Very well," Bedivere said, assembling the black leather pouches with the black leather belt. "Raise your arms."

She reddened. "I can do that for myself, thanks."

He smiled, handing over the heavy-duty equipment to her, which she proceeded to struggle to put on. Each time she tried to fasten the buckle, the weight of the pouches would cause the whole rig to sag to one side and she'd have to undo the buckle again before retrying and failing once more.

She let out a heavy sigh.

"Are you going to allow me to help you yet?" Bedivere asked with a grin.

She rolled her eyes before throwing her arms up in the air, looking away from him. He proceeded to stand behind her, reaching around her waist for the buckle. She flinched, feeling her face warm up as he undid her belt, tightening it up and refastening it.

"Is that too tight for you?" he asked.

She looked at herself in the mirror. He stood right behind her, the strong, gallant frame to her soft, elegant portrait. He caught her eyes in the mirror as well, standing perfectly still as he awaited her response. If she had a camera, she'd capture this moment for all eternity.

There was a flash of light to the side and they both turned toward it. It was a young boy with a camera.

"Oh, that's perfect!" the young boy cheered as he took out the result. "Hey, um, Miss Schnee?"

"Hi," Weiss greeted him.

"Um, I'd like for you to have this. As a gift."

She accepted the photograph from the young boy and waited for it to develop. It was a shot of her and Bedivere from their right, both of them looking ahead, calm and pleasant expressions on their faces. No space separated them at all; he was leaning right up against her, awaiting her command. Or was it that she was leaning back against him? Perhaps they were leaning on each other.

"Thank you," Weiss said. "This is beautiful."

Bedivere watched the exchange. _Beautiful._ Yes, that was the proper word to describe this, all of this, right now.

"What's your name?" she asked.

"Max!" he said.

"Thank you, Max. I'll keep this close to my heart always."

Bedivere turned away to hide the redness forming on his face. He feigned perusal through the Dust selections, which he wasn't totally disinterested in. He still had much to learn about this world's phenomena, after all. He glanced over his shoulder at Weiss, who was heading toward him. As his face was still warm, he avoided her gaze.

"You thinking of buying some Dust, too?" she asked.

"Yes," he squeaked, clearing his throat immediately after as he looked at some Dust in the direction opposite of her.

"Why are you looking that way? This is the Dust we should be getting."

He cleared his throat once more. "Oh, yes, of course, I just was curious about the different shapes and configurations of the crystals."

"Right, we haven't even gone through all this stuff yet. Simply put, Dust is a source of energy for this world. The fundamental forces of nature are collected in each type of Dust, which is considered a leftover of the primordial substances from the creation of our world."

"And each different color of Dust represents a different aspect of this world, then."

"Correct. White Dust is air or wind. Fire is red. Water is blue. Lightning is yellow. Ice is dark blue. The dark purple Dust is gravity."

"You can control gravity?"

"Yes."

"Hmm. Please, continue."

"Earth Dust is brown. There are plenty other different kinds of Dust, but I'm sure you're getting bored of this lecture already."

"Not at all. I could never grow weary of hearing your voice."

They both found themselves reddening and turned away from each other to face the clerk.

"We'll have some Dust, please," Weiss said, pointing to the selections that matched her regular arsenal of Dust.

"Right away, Miss Schnee," the clerk said with a grin.

"Will this be enough for everything we have gotten so far?" Bedivere asked as he laid out two gold pieces on the counter.

"That's more than enough. You don't have any Lien on you?"

"Unfortunately not. I have yet to have the chance to exchange these gold ounces at a suitable bank."

"Well, I'm sure I can make do. You two have a great day now. And thank you for saving our town yesterday."

Bedivere gave the clerk a bow before joining Weiss out of the store. "Do you have everything you need packed away?"

"Yeah," Weiss said, examining her old luggage, which was about to fall apart by now. "I've gone through it enough times. Pretty sure I didn't leave anything in here. You have enough food packed?"

He nodded. "Okay, let's run through our checklist. Weapons?"

"Check."

"Food, check. Clothing?"

"Check. You've got your money, right?"

"Check."

"We're good to go, then."

"Very well. Lead the way, my lady."

She gave him a glance before marching ahead with a grin on her face. She wasn't going to rebuke him this time for using that title with her. After all, it wasn't as excessive as when they had first met, although she probably wouldn't mind that anymore either.

 _This backpack is heavy,_ she thought. It was the first time she'd ever carried one. Usually there was someone there to carry it for her. And backpacks were almost always out of the question. It was briefcases and duffle bags for her, all carried by servants and attendants.

It was more than refreshing to be doing something for herself for a change. No, it wasn't so much just her helping herself. They were helping each other. He had his own backpack, filled to the top with things they needed. She, too, carried supplies they both needed. Finally it felt like she was part of a team again, just like back with Team RWBY, back when they looked out for each other, covered one another's weaknesses, bolstering each other's strengths.

She took a look at her companion over her shoulder. He was walking about fifty paces behind her, head on a swivel, constantly looking around for threats. She hadn't noticed this side of him before. She had always taken him for a relatively relaxed person. But as they passed through what was left of the main gates and into the wilderness, she noticed his demeanor change gradually from one of cool bravery to one reserved for seasoned veterans of war, soldiers who could stay awake for days and still maintain the ability to function.

He wasn't like this during that battle with the Grimm. What was it about this man that could conjure up such a severe expression? He caught her glance and almost instantly his ominous scowl transformed into a pleasing smile. There was no way a man like this was materialized through "magic." There had to be something else behind it all. The words he spoke were far from empty.

She had to find out what it was.


	6. Chapter VI

CHAPTER VI

 _Meine Seele_

"So this aura thing is the outward manifestation of one's soul," Bedivere recounted, "and that this aura can be used as a defensive implement as well as an offensive one?"

"Right," Weiss said. "That's why the Grimm don't have auras."

"Because they lack souls. But still, they are quite resilient for beings that effectively wear no armor."

"That's just the way things are."

"So, your aura is active right now."

"That's right. As long as it's up, my actual body won't take any physical damage. It's also what powers my ability to use my glyphs."

"You mean that magic thing you do."

She chuckled. "It's not magic. It's my Semblance."

"Right. That word again."

"Your Semblance is, to put it in simple terms, the thing that embodies who and what you are. It's your...superpower, I guess."

He chuckled. "Superpower, hmm? As if being able to withstand claw swipes with one's aura was not a superpower in itself already."

"Well, your Semblance is like, I guess, a special property that is unique to you and you alone. There are potentially as many possible Semblances as there are individual people in the world."

"But you mentioned that your Semblance is hereditary."

"A lot of them are, but it's extremely rare for inherited Semblances to be identical between family members, such as my own."

"So this power to create glyphs is a power specific to you and your family."

"Right."

"I've seen you project Dust power using your glyph, but what else can you do with it?"

She projected one beneath her, using it to propel her into the air and then quickly projecting another glyph and using it to change directions mid-flight.

"That was astounding," Bedivere said. "I can see why your power would be of great utility on the battlefield. And you can also use this power to project Dust effects, correct?"

"Mm-hmm. But I won't give you a demo of that because it would be a waste of ammo."

"Of course. I would never suggest misusing critical supplies in such a manner."

"You talk about all this stuff like it's new to you."

"You did create me only a few days ago."

She sighed. "I didn't create you. I don't have that kind of power. I'm not some kind of god, you know."

"Whatever it was that caused my existence, it has to be tied to you somehow."

"If you insist."

"I do insist. Why else would I have such an impulse to protect you?"

"I dunno, cuz you're weird?"

He chuckled. "I think that was uncalled for."

"Nah. It was totally called for. You're weird."

"I suppose I am a bit unusual. I do not possess this aura you speak of. I cannot utilize Dust. And I do not believe I have access to any sort of Semblance or whatever superpower it would be."

"Yeah, that's impossible. There's no way you walked away from a battle with more than a hundred Grimm without getting a scratch on you."

His response was a grin.

"Wait, are you saying that you are _that_ fast?"

He shrugged.

"No. I don't know _anyone_ that moves faster than Ruby."

He pulled out a small dagger from beneath his coat, pulling up his hand for her to see. She watched as he sliced the back of his hand and as blood poured from the wound. If he had an aura, that would not have happened.

"Wait, you can turn your aura on and off at will?" she said.

"As I said, I do not possess such a thing," Bedivere said, wrapping up his hand and sheathing his dagger.

"What the hell are you?"

"I'm a knight."

"Yeah. Okay. But _what_ are you?"

"A man?"

"A man without an aura who has the ability to fight a hundred Grimm at a time without getting a scratch on him?"

"Please, Weiss, I can only stand so much flattery."

"I'm _not_ trying to flatter you!" She got in front of him to block his path and he stopped. "We are not gonna move forward from here until you tell me what you are."

"I'm sorry. I do not know what to tell you other than that I am a knight sworn to protect you. That is all. Those are the thoughts that were in my mind when I was brought to this world."

She glared at him. His resolution showed no signs of breaking. Either he was an incredibly good liar or he really was telling the truth.

"Okay," she said. "Even if I did buy the story that you were somehow created out of thin air from my thoughts and whatever, why the hell would you manifest without an aura, without any knowledge about Dust, and without a Semblance? Wouldn't those things be important for, you know, staying alive long enough in battle?"

"I suppose it depends. My armor certainly does well enough to protect me in battle."

"Yeah, that's another thing! What the hell was with that? Your armor just _appeared_ on you while you were walking in the street! And where the hell did it go?"

He shrugged.

"Quit shrugging! I want answers!"

"I came into being only a few days ago. There are still many things I have yet to understand myself."

"Okay, if you won't answer that, tell me about this stuff you are able to do, you know, use Dust-related power without any Dust."

He looked down at his right hand.

"Yeah, that. Because your right hand glowed different colors depending on what kind of power you were using."

"Well..."

She crossed her arms, waiting for an answer.

"I suppose it could be called magic."

"Magic."

He nodded.

"What, are you a Maiden?"

"I'm sorry, a _what_?"

"Never mind. So, magic."

He nodded. "I suppose it would be easier just to give you a demonstration."

She watched as he turned to a tree, holding his hand out. There was a red-orange glow emanating from the back of his hand as some kind of marking appeared.

"Fire Rune," he mumbled. " _Teufelsatem_!"

A fireball formed in his hand before shooting out at the tree and exploding on impact, tearing it in half and leaving blackened embers directly at the blast zone.

"What was that?" she asked.

"That was my power."

"No, not that. I don't care about that. What was that thing that appeared on your hand?"

"The rune?"

"Yes. And you even mumbled something. Fire Rune?"

"That is correct. I have been granted the ability to be able to use any rune I desire."

"What? Rune?"

"The thing you see forming on my hand is the physical linguistic manifestation of fire magic, a spell or incantation carved into stone, or in this case, flesh."

"But you used different powers each time."

"Right."

He held out his hand at another tree. This time, another animated symbol appeared on the back of his hand, this one pale green in color. The geometric shapes present were identical to the previous ones, but the unfamiliar writing was different. At least, from what she could tell.

"Wind Rune," he mumbled again. " _Sturm_!"

A blast of air projected from his hand, powerful enough to tear the tree in half.

"Holy crap," Weiss said.

"Does my power impress you?" Bedivere said with a grin.

"No. It doesn't."

He made a sad face at her.

"That absolutely does not suit you. C'mon, let's go."

He followed after her.

"So your arm is capable of doing this magic stuff," Weiss said as she led the way down the road.

"I suppose so," he said.

"Is it possible for you to give me a straight answer or not?"

"It is not possible for me to give an answer that I do not have. As I said, I was brought into this world with only one thought on my mind."

"And what's that?"

"'Keep her safe.'"

"Huh?"

"When I found myself in the woods that day, those were the first words I heard in my head. 'Keep her safe.' Instantly, I could somehow feel your presence not too far away. I made my way to you as quickly as I could and extracted you from that situation, leaping as high as my legs would take me until that stupid bird began to attack, at which point I stuck to the ground and ran until I could no longer move. Those were my first minutes in existence. I know nothing else about myself. Everything I've told you I've fabricated. I am not a knight. I am not even human. At least, I don't think so. I don't know where the name 'Bedivere' came from. I don't even know why I speak with an English accent, nor why I speak in this vernacular no one else seems to share.

"I certainly have no idea about these magical powers that exist in my right arm, nor how that armor manifested on my body, nor how I am capable of fighting the way I do. I know _nothing_ about myself, Weiss. Nothing. The only compulsion that I cannot ignore is the one to ' _keep her safe_ ,' 'her' being you, I presume, since I am drawn to your presence."

Weiss looked down at the road as they continued marching on. If all this was true, then why? Why would he come out of nowhere like that just to save her? Was he really nothing more than a summon gone wrong? Or perhaps, horribly right?

Was he even real?

"Niemals werde ich dich verlassen," he mumbled.

"Huh?" she said, turning to him.

"Nothing. It's nothing."

"Nothing?"

"It means nothing."

His voice was stern. He was closing himself off to her. She couldn't let that happen. Not after everything, no way. But prying even more would only make him clam up. She had to leave it where it was for now. Otherwise, she might lose him forever.

And for some reason she couldn't understand, that thought terrified her.


	7. Chapter VII

CHAPTER VII

 _Ein Held ist Geboren_

The rest of the trip was filled with a deafening silence. Weiss could not help but think about the gulf that suddenly grew between them, like a chasm that threatened to swallow her whole and plunge her into oblivion. She felt alone again. The joy and serenity of the last few days was all but evanescent. She knew happiness couldn't last. What she hadn't realized was that it was possible to lose it so quickly.

Why the hell did she have to go and interrogate him like that anyway? She could've just left it alone and trusted him, but no. She had to assert her dominance over him and make demands that were clearly impossible to meet.

 _Stupid,_ she thought. _Stupid, stupid, stupid._

She felt a tear roll down her cheek and quickly wiped it away. She took a short glance at her companion, making sure that he didn't see that tear. Of course, he was ever vigilant, eyes constantly moving from tree to tree, shrub to shrub, making sure that there were no threats lurking behind them.

She let out a heavy sigh. _Why, why, why? Everything was going just fine until I had to go and be an idiot!_

"We should make camp here," Bedivere said.

She stopped and turned to him.

"Darkness shall fall soon and we don't want to be traveling at night."

Without a word, she followed after him, getting off the road and searching for a place to settle down for the evening. They were in the middle of setting up camp when Weiss could no longer stand the silence from him.

She turned to face him. He was in the process of laying out his blanket. She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. What if she said the wrong thing again? She would be risking pushing him even further away.

"If you wish to make conversation," Bedivere said without looking at her, "you are free to do so."

She sighed.

"You've been sighing so much lately." After he finished setting up his sleeping bag, Bedivere turned and leaned against a rock. "Would you like me to tell you a story?"

She looked at him, her light blue eyes locking with his hazels.

"Of course, it would be one I'd have to fabricate out of thin air."

He didn't intend on it, but those words were like daggers thrown right at her and she instinctively ducked out of the way.

"I am a good storyteller, aren't I?"

She turned back to him. He returned her gaze, saying nothing. Not even once did he break eye contact with her. It was like he was staring right into her soul. For once she was dumbfounded. No snarky remarks found their way to the surface.

She turned to the left at a sound. It was distant, but it sounded like a person yelling. As it came closer, it became clear that it was the sound of multiple people in distress, crying out for help to anyone who would hear.

The first thing Weiss did was draw Myrtenaster, dashing through the woods in the direction of the pleas. She got to the road, spotting three individuals, a man, a woman, and a child, each of them with clothes tattered and blood streaming from more than one place.

"What happened?" Weiss asked.

"Grimm attack," the man said. "We only barely managed to make it out alive, but I think they're after us—"

Weiss quickly turned to a pursuing Beowolf and lunged at it, using Myrtenaster's lightning Dust to electrocute the monster until it fell motionless to the ground.

"Look out!" the woman yelled.

Weiss engaged three more Beowolves, downing two swiftly before turning to the last one, which had already been cleaved in half. Bedivere was standing over the monster's corpse, his sword glistening in the sunlight. She hadn't noticed before how ornately crafted his weapon was.

"You have to help the village," the man said, clutching his son in his arms. "My son won't last out here for much longer. All the supplies we need are back home!"

Weiss turned to her companion watching him as he walked over to the family and knelt before them.

"I am Sir Bedivere, a Knight of Kameloth," he said. "Please be assured when I tell you that everything will be all right."

He held out his right hand and a blue colored rune manifested on the back of his hand. As it glowed, he whispered another incantation.

" _Element des Lebens_."

The family's wounds all started to glow blue, the same as the runic symbols on the back of the knight's hand. Slowly, each one closed up, leaving behind nothing more than dried crusts of blood and scar tissue.

"Mother? Father?" the boy managed as he opened his eyes.

"Oh, thank the gods!" the woman said. "Sir Bedivere, thank you! You've saved our son!"

"'Tis the duty of a knight to render aid when needed," Bedivere said. "Worry not, for we shall save your village. Just past these trees, my companion and I have set up camp for the night. Please feel free to take shelter there if you need. We also have food if you hunger."

"No, we're going to follow you back," the man said.

"I highly advise against that."

"We'll go gather your things, then," the woman said. "We'll bring them to you when the battle is over."

Bedivere smiled. "I appreciate your confidence in us. And yes, this battle will be short and victory shall descend upon us on swift wings."

He turned to Weiss, making eye contact with her. There were no words between them. Just a single nod and then they were off. The village was in view within minutes, the sounds of screaming and roaring permeating the air. Smoke filled the sky along with the foul odor of death and destruction.

"No," Bedivere said. "Were we too late?"

Weiss dashed into the village, searching for survivors. There were a number of Beowolf Grimm trying to break into a well-reinforced house. She ran to them, catching their attention before slaying each one with swift strikes from Myrtenaster. She turned to find Bedivere, who was shouldering an elderly man out of a burning building.

 _He can handle himself without me,_ she thought as she went to the house she had just defended, knocking on the door.

"Is anyone in there?" she yelled. "If there are people inside this house, stay inside. Do not come out until the battle is over, understand?"

A small window to the side opened up and she made eye contact with someone, exchanging nods before moving on to the next target, which was another besieged house across the street. A Boarbatusk broke right through the front door before several Creeps poured through. She ran faster, projecting a glyph to launch her forward. She landed with Myrtenaster aimed down, impaling the Boarbatusk right in the neck before moving on to her next target, the Creeps that had just invaded this home.

A teenage girl, the eldest of the children, was holding up a kitchen knife, fending off against the eight Creeps that had broken in. Just as one of them lunged at the girl, Weiss projected a glyph infused with ice Dust, impaling the Creep and killing it instantly. She went from one Grimm to the next, slashing and stabbing until three remained, which she squared off with.

"Do you guys have a safe room you can hide in?" she asked, keeping her eye on the monsters.

"Y-Yes, we do," the teenage girl said.

"Gather up your family and barricade yourselves in there! Do it now!"

Weiss listened to shuffling and whimpering before spotting two bodies off to the side. Their parents. She gritted her teeth, snarling before quickly killing all three Creeps with a single swipe from her weapon.

"Impressive," Bedivere said from the doorway.

She turned to him. He was leaning against the frame with his sword resting on his shoulder.

"There are more people to save. Oh, and your old friend seems to have returned."

She ran out into the street with him, looking up at the sky. That giant Nevermore that had been harassing her the other day was back. At least, she figured it was the same one. It was impossible to be sure, but it's likely that this was the one since she didn't see any other giant birds in the sky that day.

"Your glyphs," he began, preparing himself for battle, "you can project them as though they were platforms, correct?"

"That's right," she said.

"Can you give me a straight shot toward that oversized pigeon?"

She chuckled softly. "Yes."

"Then, let your aim be true, my lady, as I shall be your sword today."

Her heart skipped a beat. At least that's what it felt like. No, maybe she just forgot to breathe for a second.

"Is everything all right?"

"Huh? Oh, y-yeah. Just follow the path I lay out. And don't miss any of them."

"I never miss my target."

Smiling, she prepared to create the path necessary for him to take up to the giant bird Grimm. Once her concentration was at its peak, she aimed Myrtenaster at all the necessary points and Bedivere instantly took off into the sky, using each glyph as a platform from which to launch his attacks on the Nevermore.

Weiss watched from below as he catapulted from one glyph to the other, hacking and slashing and stabbing as much as he could. Eventually, he landed on top of the bird and delivered a number of blows to its back, but it was able to shake him off in no time.

Thinking quickly, Weiss projected several more glyphs for him to use and he resumed his attack on the giant bird.

 _Why won't he use his magic attacks?_ Weiss thought.

He finally managed to land a powerful slice to the monster's neck, severing its head from the rest of its body. Weiss projected another glyph to slow down his landing and he touched down gracefully right in front of her.

They silently stood face to face. She looked up into his hazel eyes, taking every ounce of him in. He didn't have to say anything right now. This was enough. It was more than enough. Just being close to him was perfect. It was all she needed. It was...

She found herself falling forward and he caught her just in time.

"Weiss!" he said. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, just...just a little woozy," she said.

"Because of your Semblance?"

She nodded. "That was a lot of glyphs I threw around just now."

"It drains your aura."

She nodded again. "I guess I haven't recovered as much as I thought."

They both looked around. A number of Beowolves had wandered into the village, searching for more human flesh to rend.

"Stay here," Bedivere said. "Let me be your sword once more."

She gave him a nod, standing her ground as he dashed to the group of Grimm, delivering a single fatal slash to each of his targets. He darted to another incoming group of Beowolves, making swift work of those as well.

Weiss turned around, spotting two Ursas heading toward a house. Her aura was still low, but she had to do something. She could use Myrtenaster directly and give her aura time to recover. After deciding on a plan of attack, she switched her weapon's Dust cartridge to ice and went on the offensive.

The first thing she did was encase both monsters in ice, rendering them immobile. She quickly switched over to fire Dust and scorched them both, but it was still not enough to kill them. These Ursas could take a beating, after all.

One of the bear Grimm ran after her and she counterattacked, projecting a glyph beneath to boost her into the air before creating another one to launch her downward at the monster, impaling it in the mouth while it was mid-roar.

She faced off against the last Ursa, spotting two children huddled together in an alley, hiding from a Beowolf that was trying to sniff them out. She turned back to the Ursa. She needed to make this quick and save those kids.

The Ursa attacked first and she countered with earth Dust, hurling a number of boulders at the monster. A lightning strike sent the Ursa to the ground, but it wasn't out of the fight just yet, although it was stunned long enough for Weiss to go and rescue those kids. Just before the Beowolf got to them, she lunged at it from behind, impaling the monster in the back and killing it with a jolt of electricity from her weapon.

"Are you two all right?" she asked the children.

Both shook their heads.

"Stay here, okay? I'm gonna go finish off another one of those monsters."

She turned to resume the fight with the Ursa, but it was gone. She darted into the street, looking for it in a panic. It had gone off after another victim, a young woman who was cowering against a dumpster.

"Hey!" Weiss yelled as she projected an ice spear at the monster. "You get the hell away from her!"

The ice spear nailed the Ursa directly in the back, but to no effect. She got its attention off of the girl, though, which was good. They resumed their battle, with Weiss gaining the upper hand before finishing it off with a head shot.

"Are you hurt?" she asked the young woman, who shook her head. "Get somewhere safe until this battle is over."

Weiss went out in search of her partner, who was fighting against two dozen Grimm at once. Even though this was her second time watching him fight so many monsters simultaneously, she still couldn't get over how incredibly skilled he was. She took this chance to rest herself up for a bit, allowing her aura to fully regenerate. Once that was done, she could rejoin him in the fight.

"I was beginning to think you had gone off to take a nap," Bedivere said as she stood back to back with him.

"Psh. Unlike you, the rest of us are only human."

He chuckled. "I'm only human as well, you know."

"That's still up for debate. Where's your armor, by the way?"

He shrugged. "I, too, was expecting for it to appear on my body, but perhaps I don't need it this time. It may have been fortunate as well. I doubt I could have done all that sky jumping with all that extra weight. That was incredible, by the way."

"Not used to flying, huh?"

"No, that's not what I mean. I'm talking about how we fought in complete tandem the way we did, even though it was our first time ever working together like that."

He was right. This was their first real battle together, and they operated like clockwork.

"Shall we have another dance?"

She reddened. "Do you have to put it that way?"

An Alpha Beowolf attacked them and Weiss quickly projected a glyph, which her partner vaulted off of, goring the monster in the chest with enough force to send it flying. He swung at another Beowolf as it passed by before leaping off of another glyph his companion had projected and launching another attack. After slashing through a smaller Nevermore, he landed on the ground and turned to Weiss. She was surrounded by over a dozen Beowolves and Creeps.

He was about to dash to her aid when she projected a large glyph beneath her and thrust Myrtenaster directly into its center, causing a catastrophic flaming explosion that incinerated all of her nearby enemies and hurled the rest away from her. She made eye contact with her companion and he gave her a smirk, which she returned.

They continued their tandem battle, besting a hundred Grimm together before heading back into the village to search for more threats. Once they had determined that the area was free of all Grimm, they went from house to house, sounding the all-clear.

"By the gods, we have been saved," the village elder said as he approached the duo to thank them personally. "How ever might we repay you?"

"Simple lodging will suffice, good sir," Bedivere said with a bow.

"Surely you could use more than that."

"We'll be fine," Weiss said. "We've already re-supplied and after today I think your village could use all of the hardware you can get your hands on. We will be able to manage with what we already have on-hand, but we do appreciate your generosity."

"Oh, dear, this certainly is embarrassing," the elder said. "You've saved our village and all we have to offer is lodging."

"As has already been said," Bedivere began, "lodging will suffice. Besides that, I think it would be wise for us to stay the night in case any Grimm return."

"Mister knight!" a young boy called from down the street. "We brought your packs with us like we promised!"

"You are too kind," Weiss said with a smile, accepting her pack from the young boy.

"It is the two of you who are too kind," the boy's father said. "You have saved our village. And you have saved my son and my wife. What can we do to repay you?"

"Rebuild," Bedivere said. "Rebuild your village and your courage and show these Grimm that they cannot break your resolve."

The surrounding villagers nodded.

"Listen to me," Bedivere said loudly enough for the entire village to hear. "The Grimm may be able to take your lives. They may destroy your homes. They may even drive fear into your hearts, take your loved ones away, make you feel as though there is no more hope. But I tell you this day, that there will always be hope. There will always be a tomorrow. For there is one thing that the Grimm can never take away from you. And that is your soul. Let that soul within your hearts shine brightly into the darkness. Drive away the shadows. And bring light back into this world!"

Weiss looked around as the villagers cheered in spite of the catastrophe that had just befallen them. Was this Bedivere's Semblance? The ability to uplift the downtrodden? It would be a strange one, but still. This wasn't the first time he encouraged a whole group of people, thus driving away the Grimm, which fed off of fear and other negative emotions.

Then again, his Semblance could be any one of a number of things, from that arm that allows him to use magic, to his seemingly magical armor, down to his superhuman strength, speed, and endurance. No, his Semblance would have to be something much deeper and much more symbolic than all this surface stuff.

That didn't matter right now, though. All she wanted to do at this moment was listen to him encourage these people.


	8. Chapter VIII

CHAPTER VIII

 _Das Brennende Mädchen_

"That was four villages now," Bedivere said as he and Weiss continued their journey to Mistral. "Two and a half weeks on the road and we've already saved four villages."

"I think we're making good time," Weiss said. "That's basically one village every four days. That's a good pace."

"Yes, indeed it is. But aren't you eager to make it to Mistral?"

"Of course I am." She paused. "I guess you're just rubbing off on me, that's all."

"Oh? You are a knight now as well?"

She chuckled. "No, dummy, that whole 'can't ignore people in need' thing you've got going on."

"Hmm. If I am a projection you summoned, then perhaps it is the other way around. It is your compulsion to save others that I am acting upon, which you are now embracing yourself."

That would make sense. If he really was nothing more than an outward manifestation of all her ideals, then it wasn't out of the question that he would be the very embodiment of honor, virtue, courage, and service.

"Perhaps, then, this arm of mine is a projection of your own power," Bedivere said, looking at his hand. "The power to control the elements. That is something inherent to you. The symbols that appear when I conjure my own power, it is not all that different from the glyphs you create. We even have similar weapons."

"Mine's a rapier," Weiss said. "You wield a friggin' _claymore_."

He drew his sword and looked at it. "It's not _that_ big, is it?"

"Compared to mine it is." She pulled out Myrtenaster, holding it outward side-by-side with his. "See?"

"Only by about two inches."

"Yeah, but that girth and weight!"

He stopped walking and turned to her. "Are you trying to come on to me?"

She reddened. "What!"

"I mean, I suppose I do have that effect on ladies, being such an astounding knight and all."

"Ugh!" She picked up a rock and threw it at him, which he blocked with his sword, after which she stomped away from him.

"Weiss! It was a joke!"

She continued marching on.

"Please, don't be like that!"

They both stopped at the sound of rumbling coming from further behind them.

"Enemy attack?" Bedivere said, preparing to do battle. "Wait, what is that?"

The thing approaching them quickly from down the road appeared to be some kind of machine, golden in color. It was coming in fast.

"Weiss! Stay alert! We have an enemy incom—"

The machine smashed into him with enough force to hurl him back several feet. Weiss ran to him to see if he was injured, but he was back up on his feet in a split second.

"Curses," he mumbled. "This one is stronger than any Grimm we've fought."

Weiss turned to face their opponent when she realized who it was.

"Have at you!" Bedivere cried out as he dashed forward.

"Wait!" Weiss said. "Bedivere! No!"

Bedivere engaged his golden foe in combat, exchanging one blow after another, neither one landing a hit on the other.

 _She's fast,_ Bedivere thought just before his opponent landed a punch on his jaw, sending him flying backwards. He somersaulted and landed in a squat. _And strong._

They broke into another scuffle before Bedivere landed a hit with his sword, but it didn't cut through.

"Aura?" he said aloud before his opponent managed to kick his sword away and then trip him and deliver an elbow into his gut, sending him crashing into the earth. In an instant, his opponent was on top of him, about to deliver a devastating punch to his face.

"Stop!" Weiss cried out.

Immediately, both fighters ceased activity, glaring into each other's faces.

"Looks like I win this round," the new arrival said.

"Are you certain?" Bedivere said.

The golden-haired girl glanced over at his right hand, which was glowing with a red-orange light. She turned to him again.

"Should we resume our match, then?"

"Would you two stop it?" Weiss yelled at the pair as she ran up to them.

"Weiss, you know this girl?" Bedivere said.

"Weiss, you know this guy?" the golden-haired girl said at the same time.

They both glanced at each other with scowls on their faces.

Weiss let out a heavy sigh, letting her head hang backwards. "Yang, what the hell are you doing here?"

"Well, I _was_ on my way to Mistral when this asshole broke my bike," she said.

"Excuse me, but it was _you_ who ran me down in the middle of the road," Bedivere said.

"It's called a _road_ for a reason, dumbass. You don't go walking in the middle of it when there are cars and shit."

"There hasn't been a single vehicle on this road with us for days! And then you suddenly come along and run me over!"

"Yang!" Weiss yelled.

"What?" she yelled back.

"Could you, like, you know, _get off of him_?"

Yang looked back down at Bedivere before quickly getting up.

"Thank you," Bedivere said, dusting himself off as he stood and retrieved his sword, sheathing it. "And here I thought you enjoyed being on top of me that whole time."

Both girls glared at him.

"And I am going to shut up now."

"Yang!" Weiss said, throwing her arms over her friend.

"Yes, Weiss?" Yang said with a chuckle.

"How have you been?"

"Oh, you know, just peachy until your boyfriend decided to break my ride." She pointed over to the heaping pile of scrap metal that was once a motorcycle.

Weiss felt like her face was about to catch fire. "Never mind that, what have you been up to?"

"Recuperating, mostly. What about you?"

"Sort of the same thing. Well, long story short, Dad tried to lock me away and I ran from home."

"Whoa. Wait, I wanna hear more about this story."

"Ugh, there's nothing to tell!"

Yang glanced over her shoulder at Bedivere, who was gathering up their things. "But what I really wanna hear about is mister tall and handsome over there."

At this rate, Weiss's face was never going to return to its normal color. "He's, uh, he's my knight. That's all."

"Wait, _what_? _Your_ knight? And, wait, a _knight_?"

"It's a long story, okay?"

"So make it quick."

She sighed. "I tried to summon a suit of armor and instead that guy came out. And he's been following me around ever since."

"Following you around, huh? From where I was, I could swear you were walking together."

Her face definitely wasn't going to return to its normal color anymore. "Yang?"

"Weiss?"

"I would appreciate it, if you would stop with the innuendo."

"Innuendo, out the other?"

"That's not funny."

"Yeah it is."

"No, it isn't."

"Yeah-huh."

"So," Bedivere said, approaching the two girls. "I seem to be missing something here."

"I'm Yang," she said, extending a hand.

"I am Sir Bedivere," he said as he took her hand, bowed, and kissed it.

"Whoa." She turned to Weiss. "Where did you say you found him? Cuz I want one now."

Weiss growled. "C'mon, let's keep going!"

"Ugh, this means I have to walk since you broke my ride." She grabbed all of her things from the wreckage. "You owe me a bike."

"What?" Weiss said. "Why me?"

"Because your knight broke it. And you're responsible for him. And besides, you've got money."

"Ugh! Bedivere, you owe Yang a bike!"

"I shall see if they have a suitable one when we reach Mistral."

"Dang, your knight doesn't even complain," Yang said to Weiss. "You tell him what to do and he just does it."

"Yang!"

"Weiss?"

The latter let out a heavy sigh. "I'm just gonna ignore both of you now." She walked ahead of her group.

"Hey, wait, so now that there's three of us, are we gonna be Team WBY?" She chuckled. "Team Wooby?"

"You realize how silly that sounds?" Weiss said.

"I like it," Bedivere said.

"Ugh, you _would_ agree with her!"

"I think it's cute."

"See?" Yang said. "He thinks it's cute, too!" She turned to him. "I think _you're_ cute, b-t-dubs."

"What is a b-t-dubs?"

"Yang!" Weiss yelled from down the road. "Go find your own knight! Leave mine alone!"

Yang couldn't help but laugh. "So, you're her knight in shining armor, huh?"

"Well, sans the shining armor," Bedivere said.

"You two even match clothes. That's cute."

"Thank you. I selected them myself from a traveling merchant."

"So she said she summoned you, huh?"

"That is correct. A number of weeks ago, Lady Weiss found herself in trouble and attempted to summon one of her fallen enemies to her side, in particular a suit of knightly armor that had been possessed by a Grimm. Rather than that creature, I somehow manifested into this world to be her aide."

"And you're a full-blown knight, huh? Complete with a personality and history and stuff?"

"Well, not quite. The only thing I remember is that I am a knight whose sole purpose is to guard her with my life."

"So, what about this English accent and the way you talk and stuff?"

"Likely a result of her high birth and upbringing."

"Huh. That makes sense. Man, she's got some power if she can bring a guy like you to life. And you're good-looking. You've 100% gotta be her creation."

"Lady Yang, you flatter me."

She chuckled. "I could get used to this. Hey Weiss! I'm gonna steal your knight, okay?"

The latter yelled back something incomprehensible.

"I think she approved."

Bedivere chuckled. "I somehow doubt that."

"Anyway, those were some pretty slick moves back there."

"I was going to compliment you myself. It's not everyday that a swordsman is bested by a pugilist."

"A _what_?"

"Pugilist. One who specializes in fist-fighting?"

"Oh. For a second there I thought you were trying to hit on me."

He chuckled. "When we get to Mistral, we most certainly need to share a beer or two."

"I'm holding you to that, buddy. Or Beddy. Hmm. I gotta come up with a good nickname for you."

"Bedivere will suffice—"

"Knightly Bae!"

"I, uh, I'm sorry?"

"Just go with it, 'kay?"

"Uh, very well, then."

The next hour or so found Yang and Bedivere in conversation with Weiss leading the way from the very front, ignoring both of them. Most of the conversation was limited to recounting the last few weeks he'd had alone with Weiss, which was mostly them being heroes to besieged villages.

"Wait, you're telling me that _Weiss_ was the one who went in first?" Yang said.

"Each and every time," Bedivere said.

"Huh. That's different from the Weiss that left us. You know she literally ran away when Beacon Academy fell, don't you?"

"She's mentioned it once, but I never bring it up with her. From my understanding, she had no choice in the matter. It seems she has very few choices when it comes to how she lives her life."

"That's our princess for you. Born into a high family, has her whole life planned out, doesn't have any freedom. That's Weiss Schnee. Down to a tee."

"Perhaps that is also reflected in myself. After all, I feel an irresistible compulsion to remain by her side. My own destiny has been written out for me with no possibility of deviation."

"But is that really your destiny or something you chose for yourself?"

"One cannot know. After all, I was only created a few weeks ago. That compulsion has been a part of me since then."

"But you can still choose to act on it or not."

"I don't think you understand. It's not a matter of choice. I simply cannot help but run to her side the moment she's in trouble."

Weiss shrieked and Bedivere was instantly in motion to her, sword drawn and ready for battle.

"Holy shit you weren't kidding," Yang said before rushing to join them.

"Weiss, are you all right?" he said as he appeared at her side. He turned to the same direction she was facing. Just over the hill on which they were standing, fire covered the horizon. An entire town was ablaze.

"C'mon!" Weiss said as she led the way to the town.

"We won't make it in time!" Bedivere said, stopping her.

"We can't just ignore them!"

"We're not going to! Grab on to me!"

"What?"

"No time to explain! Yang, catch up to us! We shall be the advance guard!"

Yang watched as Bedivere took Weiss in his arms, his leg power alone propelling them high up into the sky. Her mouth dropped at the sight. He wasn't quite flying, but each leap covered more ground than even a vehicle might.

"No fair," she mumbled to herself as she started in a jog. "Your knight breaks my shit and then you leave me behind? Screw you, Ice Queen."


	9. Chapter IX

CHAPTER IX

 _Der Abstieg_

Weiss and Bedivere looked up at an unbelievable sight. It wasn't a town at all. At least, not in the conventional sense. Sure, there was a town involved, but that was only because it surrounded a castle.

"What in the world?" Weiss mumbled.

"Well," Bedivere said. "Suddenly I feel right at home."

"Very funny. What happened to all the fires?"

"I don't know. Also, I don't like the looks of this place."

"What, are you scared of a haunted castle?"

"Yes, actually, I am."

"Tch, you can't be serious."

"Weiss, believe me when I say that there is something in there that should not be disturbed."

"Look, I dunno what fairy tale you were ripped out of when I summoned you, but there's no such things as ghosts."

"No, but there are such things as Grimm that may as well be ghosts. Like the Geist. I mean that name literally translates into _ghost_ of all things. And didn't you say that we have yet to even know everything about the Grimm?"

"Uh-huh."

"That means there may be Grimm out there that defy all physical and natural laws."

"Magical Grimm? Gimme a break."

"Weiss, please, it would be a simple matter to go this way and avoid this incredibly foreboding location altogether."

"What has gotten into you? Aren't you supposed to be a knight of valor or something?"

"Yes! Valor _and_ wisdom, thank you! And my wisdom is telling me that going in there is a terrible idea!"

"What's all the shouting about?" Yang said as she caught up to the two. "And where the hell is all the fire that was just here?"

"Yang!" Bedivere said. "Could you please drive some sense into Weiss here?"

"Why? What's wrong?"

"He thinks the castle is really creepy," Weiss said.

Yang shivered. "Yeah, I agree. It's super creepy."

"Thank you!" Bedivere said.

"All the more reason we should go check it out!"

"What!"

"See?" Weiss said. "C'mon. Maybe we can find something in there. And that fire wasn't fake. I'm pretty sure of it. I mean, we all saw it for ourselves. There might be someone in there that needs our help."

Bedivere watched as the two girls headed in through the gates. "Did this really just happen? Tell me this didn't really just happen." He headed in after them.

The trio gawked at their surroundings. The town had indeed been burnt, but all of the flames were out. From what they could tell, they'd been out for a long time now. Bedivere walked up to one of the buildings, placing a hand on the wood.

"This wood is cold," he said.

"What do you mean 'cold'?" Yang said. "We all saw those fires just now."

"Yes, and that is what bothers me. I think we need to stay away from this place."

Weiss felt a shiver run down her spine. "C'mon, let's search for clues," she said.

"There is nothing here, Weiss," Bedivere said. "Nothing that we should be disturbing."

"What's with you?" Yang asked.

"Grimm often congregate in places that contain residual negative sentiments, is that not correct?"

"Yes, that's right," Weiss said.

"Do either of you not feel all that right now?"

"Feel what?" Yang said.

"Neither of you feel that weight? That intense pressure?"

"I mean," Weiss began, "this place does feel a little spooky."

"Creepy, more like it," Yang added.

"It's more than that," Bedivere said. "This place is alive."

"But there are no Grimm around."

"That's another thing that bothers me. Why is it that there are no Grimm here? If they are attracted to negative sentiments, this place should be swarming with them. And yet there are none."

"None that we can see," Yang said. "That just means we should go looking for them."

"Is that really a good idea?"

She didn't answer.

"Maybe he's right," Weiss said. "Something does seem 'off' about this place."

"Yeah, I agree with you," Yang said.

"Thank you," Bedivere said. "Can we turn back now?"

The two girls nodded before turning around to lead the way out through the castle gate, but before they took their third step forward, the portcullis came crashing down.

"Okay," Yang said. "What, the actual, fuck, just happened?"

"Broken latch, maybe?" Weiss said.

Bedivere examined the mechanism. "No. The machinery is intact." He tried turning the crank, which wouldn't budge. Manually attempting to lift up the gate didn't work either. Yang tried to punch the iron gate open, but it seemed indestructible.

"Screw it, you can jump high, can't you?" Yang said.

The knight looked up at the top of the walls. It was true that he could scale this height easily, but something was not allowing him to.

"What's wrong?" Weiss asked.

"I told you there was something here," Bedivere said, backing away from the gate. "And it does not want us to leave."

"What do you mean?" Yang said. "Just jump!"

"I can't."

"Huh?"

"You try."

Yang shrugged before going into a crouch. She leapt as high as she could, which was only about two feet off the ground.

"What the?" she said.

"Do you see what I mean?" Bedivere said.

"I'll try," Weiss said as she pointed Myrtenaster in the air. Nothing happened.

"What's wrong?" Yang said.

"He's right. Something here is actively keeping us inside these walls."

"Well, aren't we in a shit sandwich right now."

Both girls auras broke without any reason.

"What the..."

"Yang, you, too?"

Bedivere put some distance between himself and the wall. "This is not good." He looked down at his right hand, trying to summon one of his runes. "My magic has been sealed."

"What?"

"Are you saying we're defenseless?"

"Not entirely," Bedivere said. "We still have our weapons."

"Yeah, but we're literal walking glass cannons right now!" Yang said. "And Weiss, can you even use Dust without your aura active?"

"Yeah, but it's limited to my weapon," she said. "I won't be able to project or amplify them with my Semblance."

"Okay, this is officially _more_ than just a shit sandwich."

"I don't think we have any choice other than to go in," Bedivere said.

"Weren't you the one that wanted to run away from this place so badly?" Weiss said.

"That was when we still had the choice to run."

"Why do you have to say it like that?" she whined.

"Listen, _I_ wanted to run. The both of you were so eager to investigate. So, now we're investigating."

"You're a pain in the ass, you know that?" Yang said.

"What she said," Weiss agreed.

The trio went around the abandoned, burnt-out town, searching for any clues or people who might need assistance.

"Is anybody out there?" Yang called out. "Hello?"

"I don't think that's a good idea," Bedivere said quietly.

"It doesn't look like anyone's been here in ages," Weiss said.

"Yeah, but you know what's weirder?" Yang said. "If this place has been abandoned for years, shouldn't a lot of these buildings have fallen over already? Or, at the very least, become overgrown by now? I mean, when we were approaching this place from the outside, it was pretty overgrown, but in here it looks like the gardeners are still around."

They both turned to Bedivere, who was carefully examining their surroundings.

"Bedivere?" Weiss said.

"We might find more clues in the castle," he said.

She sighed as she followed after him. Curiously, the sky began to darken, even though it was noon out. She felt a droplet land on her cheek and looked up. The sun was no longer in the sky and there were clouds overhead.

"How is it dusk already?" she said.

"You got me," Yang said. "And the fires disappearing, the gate slamming shut, our auras getting stripped away. Yeah, I think we shoulda listened to your boyfriend."

Weiss growled. "Would you stop referring to him like that?"

"Okay, okay, your knight. Is that better?"

She sighed.

"Knight Bae?"

"Yang!"

Bedivere turned to hush them and they fell silent. He looked to the left and right before crossing the street. As soon as he stepped into the middle of the road, they heard what sounded like heavy breathing. The breaths were labored and raspy.

"What is that?" Weiss said as they turned the corner to another street.

Both girls looked onward with their mouths agape. If this were a Grimm, it was unlike anything they had ever seen before. But it could not be a Grimm. It lacked the characteristic black tint and bony protrusions. And there was something about this thing that was far more unsettling than any Grimm they had ever had the displeasure of meeting on the battlefield.

"Both of you stay quiet," Bedivere whispered.

The creature looked human, but not quite. At least, it had to be human. Some twisted, mutilated version of one. Its skin was taut, pulled in all directions by some unknown force. It convulsed as it moved, each step it took appearing to be extremely painful to the creature, and yet it continued to wander about. It had no face, only a tiny hole in its head that could have been an eye or an ear. Or maybe a mouth. Or a nose. It could have been all of these things at once. It clearly had arms, though they were apparently useless as they were inextricably fused with its torso.

"I think I'm gonna be sick," Yang whispered.

"What is that thing?" Weiss said.

"Clearly an enemy," Bedivere replied. "Come, let us try and get around it. We cannot engage it in battle without your auras active."

"As long as we kill it before it hits us, we're good," Yang said.

"There may be many more that we cannot see. I am not taking the risk of it possibly alerting them."

They stuck to the buildings, using them as cover as they snuck toward the castle. It wasn't until now that Weiss realized that this castle was very out of place. Most old castles within Mistral's borders were of a different variety, made out of wood and other light materials. But this castle wasn't that different from the ones seen in Vale and Atlas, made of stone.

Yang stepped on a twig, which let out the loudest snap in the world.

"Crap," she said.

The creature they had been trying to avoid turned toward them and wailed. It was an eerie sound that resembled an animal being butchered combined with the screams of a tortured human being.

Without a word, Bedivere took both girls by the hand and pulled them into a small alcove between buildings. They peeked out of their hiding place as the creature darted into their alley, looking around. The small hole in its head now had an eye protruding from it, scanning its surroundings like a periscope. It was still breathing in that erratic manner, much more loudly than before, maybe a sign of being alerted by their presence.

Weiss slowly turned to her right as she sensed something beside them. There was another creature in the alleyway. She tapped her companions, who took note of it as well. At this point, it was impossible to tell if there were more, though they had to assume that they were surrounded.

Bedivere looked around for an opening they could use. There was a small hatch above them, probably used for dumping out garbage. He quietly pushed it up and out of the way, glancing around inside the building before signaling to his two companions. He hopped up first, hoisting up Weiss next and then Yang. Once inside the burnt-out structure, he covered the hatch back up.

The trio sat silent for several minutes, listening to the wet footsteps of the monsters lurking around outside. Eventually, the number of footsteps increased and they figured there were probably five out there.

"Why don't we just take them down?" Yang asked.

"We don't know their fighting capabilities," Bedivere whispered back. "They could be venomous for all we know. And without your auras and my magic, they'd kill us in an instant. Or worse."

Weiss crept over to the other side of the house, peeking through burned holes in the structure. There were several more creatures out on the road as well. Upon closer inspection, she noticed that each of the creatures was slightly different from the other. Some had two holes in the head instead of the one. Others had one of the arms partially free, while others had the muscle beneath the skin exposed to the air.

She backed away from her makeshift window, leaning up against the wall as she tried to regain her composure. She had become so reliant on her Semblance that she now felt completely vulnerable. Even her knight was no longer at his full strength. All three had a very high chance of dying today if they weren't careful.

 _Just think of this as the final test before graduation,_ she told herself. _Just because we have aura doesn't mean we should go around getting hit. So this should be a test of our ability to avoid damage. Or, avoid contact with the enemy altogether._

"Is it really a good idea to head into the castle?" Yang asked Bedivere. "I mean, there are probably more of those things inside."

He didn't answer. She was right, after all. There could even be worse foes in there. But that didn't change the fact that they needed to go in there. The sensation was stronger now than ever. Whatever it was that was causing this wretched phenomenon around them, sealing their powers like that, it was in the heart of that castle.

"Whatever it is that doesn't want us to leave," he began, "it's in there."

"I thought you were gonna say that," Yang said. "Count me in, by the way."

"Me, too," Weiss said, rejoining them.

Bedivere nodded before peeking out of a hole in the wall. The path to the castle's main door was clear, but there were about a dozen of those things out there. From earlier, they figured out that they were capable of moving with alarming speed despite the apparent pain they were in. There was still no hint of their offensive capabilities, but for all they knew they were capable of spitting acid. The dash would have to be fast.

"Your weapons still function, correct?" Bedivere asked.

"Yup," Yang said, activating her gauntlets as quietly as she could.

"I can't use my Semblance," Weiss said, "but Myrtenaster still works."

"I'll be relying on you," Bedivere said. "My magic doesn't work here at all."

"It's okay," Weiss said. "I'll be your sword today."

He gave her a smile.

"Aww," Yang said. "Aren't you two cute?"

Weiss rolled her eyes. "Ready to go?"

Without another word, Bedivere smashed through the wall, rushing out before the two girls, who were launching ranged attacks at the creatures left and right. Each of those horrid monsters screeched at once before breaking into mad dashes toward them.

"These things can take a lot of punishment!" Yang said, reloading her gauntlets.

"It looks like they can reform, too!" Weiss said, referring to a monster that she had crushed with some earth Dust, which was rebuilding itself.

Bedivere ran ahead. One of the creatures was blocking their path to the main door. He went for a quick slash to its body, landing behind it and delivering another blow to its neck, severing the head. The body continued moving toward him while the head developed a monstrous face and grew tendril-like legs beneath it, scurrying after him. He looked at his sword. It was sizzling.

"Stay away from its blood!" he said to the girls. "It's corrosive!"

Yang kicked the head away before helping Bedivere push the door open. All three ran through, the creatures just behind them.

"Weiss! Grab that bar!" Bedivere said as he and Yang shut the doors again, trying to keep the monsters from breaking through.

Weiss struggled with the heavy metal bar, lifting it as high as she could before Yang and Bedivere hoisted it the rest of the way up, dropping it into the hooks on the doors. They backed away, half expecting the giant doors to give in to all that pounding from outside, but after a minute, the banging stopped.

"Did they leave?" Yang said, approaching a small window. She pulled the shutter to the side to look out. One of the creatures was already looking in and she quickly closed it back up. "Nope. Still there. Jeez."

"So, what now?" Weiss panted.

They both looked at Bedivere, who was staring down the long and dark corridor that led deeper into the castle. The light from outside only came in so far. Everything else beyond a certain point was pitch black.

"This is gonna sound stupid," Yang began, "but I think I'd rather deal with what I can see instead of what I can't."

"That's not stupid at all," Weiss said. "Are you sure it's a good idea going in there? Your sword is melted."

Bedivere looked at his weapon. It had been reduced to nothing more than a metal skeleton. He dropped it on the ground and drew his dagger.

"Are you serious?" Yang said.

"Well, what else would you have me do?" he snapped. "I have no access to my power and neither of you have your auras active."

"At least we still have our main weapons," Weiss said. "Let's stick together."

"What do you think is in there anyway?" Yang asked.

"I don't know what I expect to find," Bedivere said. "But there is _something_ in here causing all of this. And we need to stop it."

"Stop it how?"

"We'll figure it out when we get there."

They walked forward until it was impossible to see.

"This is stupid," Yang said. "Weiss, can you light up your sword thingy?"

"Hang on," Weiss said, switching to fire Dust. "Okay. Do you see any torches on the walls or anything?"

"Back there." She pointed to a torch hanging on the wall.

Weiss aimed Myrtenaster at the torch, pulling the trigger and sending a burst of fire out, lighting up the torch. She lit up another torch and they each took one.

"Light one up for your boyfriend, too," Yang said.

"How 'bout I light up your hair?"

"You wanna fight me?"

They both expected their companion to stop their quarrel, but when he said nothing, they looked to where he should have been standing. He wasn't there.

"Bedivere?" Weiss said, taking a step forward.

"Where did he go?" Yang said.

"Bedivere!"

"Wait! Weiss!"

The latter took aim at every torch she could find, lighting them all up. They were in a foyer now. The knight was still nowhere to be found.

"Where could he have gone off to?" Weiss said. "Did you see him run off anywhere?" When Yang didn't answer, she turned around. She was alone. "Yang? Yang! What the hell, this isn't funny!"

—

"Weiss!" Yang said, looking all around the foyer. Neither of her companions were anywhere to be found. "What the hell is going on here!"

She spotted something to the side. A girl. Dressed in red and black. She ran to the figure.

"Ruby?" she said.

Ruby looked up at her.

"Ruby!" She threw her arms around her sister. "What in the world are you doing here?"

The younger of the two sniffled. "I got separated from everybody else."

"What do you mean 'everybody else'? The whole team is here?"

She nodded. "I was with Jaune and Ren and Nora and we all came in here and now it's just me."

"Where's your weapon?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. It disappeared right out of my hands. And our auras don't work. I can't use my Semblance."

"Yeah, I know about that."

"Yang? There are...things in here."

"Shit, so they're inside, too, huh?"

"Inside, too?"

"Yeah, they were crawling around outside the castle."

"Castle?"

"Yeah. I mean, that's what it looked like from the outside. Right?"

She shrugged. "I don't even know what's going on anymore."

"We'll figure it out together. Let's go find the others first."


	10. Chapter X

CHAPTER X

 _Sin_

Weiss swallowed as she crept down the halls, Myrtenaster in her left hand, torch in the other. She resisted the urge to call out to her companions, neither of whom she had seen or heard from in...how long had it been? Two hours? Three? There was a noise further down. It would probably be best to ignore it. But what if it was Bedivere? He might need her help.

 _Who am I kidding?_

It would be more accurate to say that she needed _his_ help.

She continued exploring the castle. At this point, it was impossible to tell which way she was oriented, whether she was heading for an exit or toward the depths of the structure. There were a few stairwells she had passed, but she had held off on descending or ascending any of them until she could figure out a basic layout of the place. That was hours ago.

 _This is worse than a maze_ ,she thought as she arrived in what appeared to be a dining hall. Upon further inspection, she determined that there were no clues to be found here and continued on her exploration.

Another hour had passed. Still no sign of anything. No Bedivere, no Yang, not even any of those monsters from outside. She was completely alone in here. She opened the door to a bedroom, shutting it behind her. Maybe she could use this place to rest for a little bit. Four hours of searching such a creepy place without a single soul to be found. Even without any fighting or running to do, four straight hours of maximum adrenaline was incredibly exhausting.

She lit up a number of torches in the room along with several candles on the bedside table. This was a nice room, fit for nobility. She put out her hand torch and took a seat on the bed, wondering what the other two were up to now. Were they safe? Yang could handle herself as well as Bedivere could. But without their respective powers intact, it was hard to say.

She caught a glimpse of herself in a beautifully decorated mirror, looking back into her own pale blue eyes.

Alone.

Isolated.

 _Who am I?_

—

Yang reloaded as she took cover behind fallen bookshelves with Ruby. She had taken down two of the monsters, but there were plenty more. Without her aura, she had to rely on ranged attacks and extremely well-planned punches.

"I'm sorry for just weighing you down like this," Ruby said.

Yang turned to her. She was huddled in a corner, pulling her knees into her chest, sobbing. "Hey, what's up with you?"

"Nothing," she sniffled.

"Just because you lost your scythe you're just gonna give up?"

"Sorry."

"That's enough apologizing. You can still fight, you know."

"I can't."

"Ruby, get a hold of yourself."

"This place, Yang, it's...it's cursed. I don't think we can get out of here."

"Don't think that way. We'll get out. We always do."

"Against the Grimm and the White Fang, but this? Have you ever seen creatures like those?"

Yang peeked over the bookcase. These monsters were radically different from the ones outside, much gorier in appearance and incredibly vicious. Fortunately their blood didn't seem to be acidic.

"How much longer are we gonna last against these things, Yang? You're gonna run out of ammo soon."

"I'll beat their heads in if I have to," Yang said, bumping her fists together before emerging from her hiding place, leaping over and attacking one of the monsters with a flurry of punches and kicks, downing it for good. She darted to another creature, using the same blitz tactic and shooting the third right in the head. "C'mon, Ruby! We're getting outta here!"

—

Weiss felt the urge to fall asleep. The bed was so comfortable, so soft and warm.

 _Warm._

She looked at the mattress, immediately gasping and hopping off of it. The bed she had been sitting on was a mass of flesh. She looked around. Other items around the room had also been transmuted into macabre versions of themselves, torches made of bone and meat, chairs made of human skin with faces for armrests.

"What _is_ this?" she said, just barely keeping the volume down.

She turned to the mirror. Her reflection looked like her, but when she raised her hand, it did nothing, continuing to stare at her. She picked up her torch, lighting it up with Myrtenaster before carefully approaching the mirror.

"What are you?" she said to her reflection.

The apparition said nothing back. Its only action was to watch her every move. There was one thing in particular Weiss noticed about this reflection. It seemed perfect. Almost too perfect, free of all blemishes, pimples, split ends, dirt and sweat. Even the scar over her left eye was missing.

"Are you supposed to be me?" she asked it, getting no response.

 _Okay, it's time to leave this room,_ she thought as she retreated from the grotesque bedroom.

The hallway hadn't been altered, which was good. The torches she had lit were still burning as well.

 _What was with that room?_

She continued forward, searching for Bedivere and Yang.

—

There was no doubting it that time. Yang had caught a glimpse of her mother as she was in the midst of fighting. Once she finished off the monsters trying to get to her and Ruby, she went off in pursuit of Raven.

"Mom!" she yelled out.

"You saw your mom?" Ruby asked.

"Yeah, you didn't see her?"

She shook her head.

"Ugh, this place sucks!"

"You're telling me."

Yang checked her gauntlets. She was running low on ammunition. Her right arm was also sore. Probably from that hit earlier. She felt a warmth flowing down her thigh. Blood.

"Damn it," she said as she tore a piece of her jacket off to fashion into a makeshift bandage. "We could really do with our auras right now."

"Yang?" Ruby said.

"What's up?"

"Why do you think this is happening?"

"You mean the spooky castle that sucked away all our aura?"

"And people disappearing. And the monsters."

"Ruby, you're asking the wrong girl. I'm just as confused as you."

"I've had some time to think about it. I think this place is...hell."

"Huh?"

"We're being punished."

"For what? We've done nothing wrong!"

"Sure we did. We couldn't save Beacon Academy. Professor Ozpin is dead. And we lost Pyrrha."

Yang stopped in her tracks. Ruby was right about all those things. They were all too weak to save anybody. They lost a lot of good friends that day and even more innocent bystanders. Even now, that gigantic Grimm was still perched atop the communications tower, drawing even more Grimm to the academy, ensuring that it would stay uninhabited for the foreseeable future.

"Even still," Yang said. "I'm not gonna fail anybody else. I'm gonna at least keep _you_ safe, Ruby."

Her little sister gave her a smile. Ruby wasn't a little girl anymore either. They had both been through a lot. Too much. More than any person should have to go through.

"C'mon, let's go look for your Crescent Rose," Yang said.

Ruby beamed before hopping to her sister's side.

—

How long had it been now? Five hours? Six? It felt more like days. Weiss stumbled up against the wall as she climbed one more flight of stairs. She dropped her torch beside her before pulling her legs up close.

This was always how it felt. Completely alone. Surrounded by family, acquaintances, and servants, and yet she was always alone. Her friends from Beacon were the only exception, the only place she belonged. And even still, they couldn't understand how she truly felt. Only one person filled that role.

And he was gone, nowhere to be found.

Had she lost him forever? Maybe the effect of the summon was temporary and he had returned to wherever he came from. She could try summoning him again, but that wouldn't work, not without her aura. Even if it did work, what were the odds that she would get exactly him back? What guarantee did she have that she'd get _him_ back and not some other iteration of him? Or just plain old Arma Gigas?

No alternatives would do, not this time. She needed him back, and for more reasons than she was willing to admit.

She hid her face behind her knees, catching herself let out a sob, which she quickly suppressed. No, she was not going to cry, not now. She'd find him and everything would be all right again.

But would it? Would it really be all right again? Would she really find him in this godforsaken place?

She sighed heavily as she picked up her torch and Myrtenaster before continuing up the stairs.

—

"How many steps was that?" Ruby panted.

"We're just about there, Ruby, just hang on," Yang said.

"Your mom really runs fast."

"Still not as fast as you if you were able to use your Semblance."

"Yeah, too bad."

Upon reaching the final landing, they came upon what appeared to be a garden full of red and black roses.

"A garden?" Yang said. "Way up on the...what is this, fifteenth floor?"

"Hey," Ruby said. "Isn't that your...?"

"Mom?" Yang said, taking a step closer to the figure up ahead.

"What are you doing here?" Raven's voice echoed.

"Long story, but what are you—"

"Of course you'd get lost in here yourself. You've always been so bullheaded. Maybe you get that from me."

"What? Look, first of all, Weiss and I came here to help people, which obviously was a trap by whatever it is that's in here to keep us locked up and—"

Without warning, Raven drew her sword and attacked. Yang only barely managed to block the strike with her gauntlets.

"Mom!" Yang cried out. "What was that for?"

"A test. To see if you are worthy."

"This is stupid! Let's just get out of—"

There was no reasoning with her right now. All Yang could do was get on the defensive, dodging and blocking and using the layout of the room to her advantage. All she had to do was land one good punch. If her aura was gone, her mom's would be inactive as well. One solid punch to knock her out. Or at the very least, prove her strength.

—

Maybe this was her true path. Maybe walking alone was her destiny. The life of a Schnee was never a normal one to begin with. In spite of his immense wealth and power, even her father was a lonely man, always on guard and skeptical, characteristic of a shrewd businessman. Whitley was no different, just as cunning as their father, just as willing to make the hard choices in life. Although, Weiss wondered just how hard the choice was to rob her of her inheritance.

Winter was no different. Even though she was an incredible soldier, she was still separated from her fellow warriors by the Schnee name. She was expected to excel and when she did, there was only empty praise. After all, excellence was the default state, not something to aspire to.

Weiss opened another door, finding herself amidst flames. It was the castle courtyard.

 _What? This doesn't make any sense. I've been climbing stairs for the past—_

There was a scream up ahead and Weiss broke into a sprint toward the sound. People needed saving. And she was going to save them.

She dodged a burning wooden beam as it fell, moving as quickly as she could. There were bodies everywhere, all of them torn apart. She readied Myrtenaster for battle against whatever might come her way. Even missing her aura and without use of her Semblance, she was not going to give up.

She spotted a burning building. The shadows of people trapped within appeared to be dancing. She ran to the entrance, switching the Dust cartridge on Myrtenaster to ice, unleashing a frost upon the doorway and extinguishing the flames. There was a lone boy in the middle of the room, covered from head to toe in soot. She grabbed him and fled out the front door before the house came crashing down.

 _Even if I can save just one._

She set the young boy down on the pavement. Upon second inspection, she realized that this wasn't just some village boy. She was staring into the face of her younger brother.

"Wha?" she stuttered. "Whitley! Why are you here?"

He opened his eyes just enough to see her face. That was all he could manage before he succumbed to the smoke inhalation.

 _No! This is all wrong! Why is he here?_

She shut her eyes, pushing out tears. There had to be a mistake. There was something wrong about this.

More screams from the right. She quickly placed a kiss on her brother's forehead before dashing to the next house. She might not have been able to save him, but she was _not_ going to lose someone else.

The fires were too hot to approach and she had to use Myrtenaster again to extinguish the flames. But it was already too late. She spotted a man and woman leaning in the back corner against one another, both lifeless. Both bore the likeness of her mother and father.

Weiss fell to her knees, tears streaming down her face. There were no words for this, any of this. Why was her family here?

 _I...I can't save any of them..._

There was another cry from outside. She turned her head to the sound. Despair rooted her to the floor. Another cry. She felt heavy as she used Myrtenaster to clear a path through the flames for her. Wiping tears from her eyes, she made her way to another house, from which sounded gunfire and roaring.

Grimm.

Her feet carried her quickly to what she figured to be the town hall. There was a battle going on inside. Three Grimm near her were already downed and evaporating into nothing. She looked further in, spotting the shadow of a woman fighting against a Grimm. The creature got her with a swipe from its claws and she let out a yelp before collapsing.

 _That voice!_ "No! Winter!"

Weiss dodged flames and leapt over obstacles to get to her sister. She made quick work of the Beowolf Grimm before running to her sister's side.

"Winter!" she cried out in tears.

Her sister gave her a sorrowful look before reaching out with a bloody hand.

"No! Winter! Don't leave me!"

"Weiss..." her elder sister managed. "Keep...moving... Don't...ever stop..."

"You're not gonna die here! Not like this!"

She swung Myrtenaster hard, pulling the trigger at the same time and unleashing a snowstorm all over the inside of the building. She picked up her sister, struggling as she shouldered her out of the building and to safety out in the street. Winter managed one last smile before lying completely still.

Drained of all her energy, Weiss fell back, dropping Myrtenaster beside her. She had failed again. And this time, the loss was more real than she could ever imagine. She truly was alone now. Her family was all gone. Her friends were all gone. The flames snuffed out every last bit of hope she once had. All that enveloped her now was pure and unbroken despair.

—

"Mom!" Yang cried out. "You have to stop this! There's no reason for this!"

"There is every reason for this, Yang," Raven insisted as she continued assailing her daughter without a shred of remorse. "If you can't fend for yourself, the world is gonna swallow you whole. How do you expect to protect your sister when all you can do right now is defend?"

"Ugh! Listen to yourself! You're not making any sense!"

"Grow up, Yang! You thought that you could just skate your way through life searching for a thrill and there wouldn't be any consequences? Here's your wake-up call!"

Yang blocked against a downward strike with both of her gauntlets, barely managing to push back against her mother's sword. She had forgotten how strong Mom was after all these years. Still, she wasn't gonna be beaten that easily. She went for a low kick, managing to trip her and send her off balance. Yang spotted something to the side, a metal pail. She kicked it toward her mother, distracting her just enough to land a solid hit on her chin.

Raven stumbled back, wiping blood off the side of her mouth.

"C'mon!" Yang said. "I landed a hit fair and square! Could you stop this already?"

She brought her sword back up to bear.

"Mom!"

"The fight never ends, Yang. It never ends."

Raven went into the offensive once more and Yang fought for her life. It was nearly impossible to land that first blow earlier. Right now it felt as though it were actually impossible. Evade. Run. Hide. Behind the pillar. Run. Counter. Block. Evade. She couldn't manage anything other than defense.

"And now to finish this!" Raven said as she attacked with a thrust.

Her sword connected. The blade's thirst for blood was quenched. But it wasn't Yang's blood it drank. In horror, Yang turned to her little sister. Ignoring the danger her mother posed, she immediately ran to Ruby's side, cradling her as she collapsed in a bed of black and red roses.

"Ruby!" Yang screamed. "No, no, no, you are _not_ doing this!"

"Y-Yang?" Ruby managed.

"Ruby! Please!"

Ruby took her sister's hand in hers. "Just...find Crescent Rose for me...okay? Keep her...safe..."

Yang's vision was blurred with tears. She couldn't be losing her sister. No way.

No.

Never.

Impossible.

It was exactly like all those years ago. She dragged her sister around in search of her mom. But this time, Uncle Qrow wasn't here to get them out of her mess. No, this time, Ruby paid the price for her stupidity.

 _God damn it!_

"Why did she have to get in the way?" Raven said, her voice incredulous.

With an awful cry, Yang found herself turning toward her mother, fist flying at full force. Before she realized it, her hand was embedded in her mother's chest, the force of her punch completely pulverizing her heart beneath her sternum. Raven coughed out blood before dropping her sword and collapsing to the ground.

"There..." Raven coughed again. "That's more like it..."

"No! Mom!" Yang cried.

"Enough of that, Yang. You have...to be strong."

But what was the point? There was no one left to be strong for.

"Be strong for me, Yang. And never stop moving...forward..."

As her mother passed away, Yang found herself in a stupor. In the span of seconds, she had killed her sister and mother, two of the most important people to her. The pain was too much for her to bear and she started shrieking at the top of her lungs, the only way she could figure out how to cope.

—

Weiss didn't stop crying for a long time. Winter was gone. Dad was gone. Whitley was gone. Everybody was gone. All she could do now was wait until those flames caught up to her and put an end to the Schnee name.

 _Weiss, what on earth are you doing?_

Whose voice was that?

 _Are you really just going to sit there and do nothing?_

It felt like forever since she last heard that voice.

 _What was that you said about doing something for yourself? Being someone? Bringing honor back to your name?_

That was all in the past. She had already failed to do any of those things.

 _Is that really true? No, it isn't. So go on, get up, get out there. And no matter what, keep moving forward!_

There was a shriek in the distance.

 _The Weiss I've come to know would not simply ignore that voice._

But even if she did get up and go, she'd still fail to save that person.

 _You are as stubborn as ever, do you know that?_

But what could she do?

 _You have your weapon, don't you?_

She looked to the side. Myrtenaster was sitting beside her.

 _That's right. You still have the ability to fight. So go and fight. Because it is not the goal that matters in the end, but that you fought, that you never gave up. That is what it means to be a hero._

Weiss stood up, determination masking her anguish. She listened for another cry for help and it came. And without another thought, she rushed to the sound.


	11. Chapter XI

CHAPTER XI

 _Als das Licht gegen die Dunkelheit Stöhnen_

Weiss threw open the doors to the castle. Fire roared out at her, but quick work with Myrtenaster pacified those flames. She ran through the castle halls toward the sound of the screaming. Her weapon's glow served as her torchlight. Three hideous monsters, similar to the ones out in the town, approached her from the side. She had no time to deal with these guys. She switched to wind Dust and blew them away, quickly changing to ice and freezing them. She flipped back to fire Dust to light her path.

The screams were getting louder. There, in the next room. That's where her target was. She told herself she wouldn't fail, but even if she did fail again, she'd keep pushing on. She'd mourn for a bit and move on to the next victim that needed her help. And maybe, just maybe she would find the one that she could save.

She kicked the door down and spotted a number of those same monsters surrounding a crying young woman in the middle of the room. There were too many for her to take on by herself. And without her aura, she had no use of her Semblance. But still, she had to do _something_.

She pointed Myrtenaster at the macabre creatures, closing her eyes and focusing deeply. Every second was a struggle, but she needed to succeed. She could not afford another failure.

She opened her eyes as she was filled with an unbelievable power. Glyphs appeared above every single one of those monsters, but upon closer inspection, she realized that these were not the usual glyphs she was capable of summoning. These were something else, something oddly familiar. Each one consisted of some arrangement of geometric shapes, inscribed with lettering that she did not recognize. Out of each of these markings shot out some phenomenon that attacked the monsters they were targeting. Some were incinerated, others frozen until they shattered, and yet others were zapped with lightning, shredded by incredible winds, or crushed by boulders. From these markings emerged every manner of destructive force she could think up, laying waste to the monsters that surrounded that girl.

Weiss closed her eyes. For a moment, it felt like 'he' was there, standing right behind her, one hand holding Myrtenaster up with her and the other hand on her waist. When the presence was gone, she ran forward, hesitating as she took a second look at her charge.

"Yang?" she said as she ran full speed ahead. "Yang!"

Her companion slowly turned and looked up at her, tears pouring from her eyes.

"Oh my god, it _is_ you!"

"Weiss...?" Yang managed.

Weiss threw herself on her companion. "Hey, are you okay?"

Yang looked down at the ground, unable to stop the tears.

"Yang?"

"It's all my fault," she sniffled. "I should never have...I should have just...oh god, Ruby, what have I done?"

"What? Ruby?" Weiss looked around, spotting nothing more than a bunch of red and black sheets scattered around, covering some portions of the rose bed.

Yang looked around as well, puzzled. "Ruby?"

Weiss pulled up one of the red sheets. "I don't think this is Ruby."

"But...she was just..."

Weiss sat in thought. _Has everything until now been an illusion?_ "Yang, I think, whatever it was you saw, I think it wasn't real."

Yang looked at her.

"I...I saw my family, too. And they died. In my arms."

"Huh...?"

"Yeah. My parents were there, my brother was there, Winter was there, too. And you said you saw Ruby."

"And my mom."

"Your mom?"

She nodded.

"All I see are a bunch of sheets. Those monsters were real, though."

"Monsters?"

"You didn't see them?"

She shook her head.

Weiss sighed heavily. "I think we've been in more danger than we thought."

Yang didn't answer. She still had to wrap her head around everything. She imagined Ruby? And her mother? But they were both so real. Their personalities were exact, their mannerisms were exact, _everything_ was exact. And it wasn't like she was merely hallucinating them either. She made actual physical contact with both of them, not to mention the wounds from her fight with her mother.

"How...did you get through it, then?" Yang asked her.

"The illusion?"

She nodded.

"I...I dunno. I was ready to give in completely, to let the flames swallow me whole. And then I heard a voice."

"A voice?"

She nodded. "It was...his voice."

They both sat still for a moment.

"I feel like we're forgetting something," Yang said.

"Not something," Weiss said, standing up. "Some _one_."

Yang stood up. "Your boyfriend."

Weiss sighed heavily before giving her companion a wry look. "Due to extenuating circumstances, I am entirely willing to ignore that comment of yours just now and keep...moving..."

"...Forward."

"Yeah."

"You, too?"

She nodded.

"My mom said something like that before she died."

"So did Winter. And the voice."

" _His_ voice."

"Let's go find him."

Weiss and Yang went from room to room, searching for their lost companion. They may have managed to break through their illusions, but he was still missing. He had to be in here somewhere. They were able to meet up, after all.

"Bedivere!" Weiss called out.

"Hey! Are you here?" Yang joined in.

"Where are you?"

Yang kicked a door down, revealing two twisted monsters. They roared at her, but before they could do anything else, she had knocked one to the ground with a punch and wrestled the other, breaking its neck. She quickly followed up on the first monster and stomped its head until it stopped moving.

"Wow," Weiss said.

"Pent up aggression," Yang said. "Take it for what it is."

"Remind me not to annoy you."

They continued searching the castle, encountering and destroying monsters along their path. Their appearance was much different from the very first ones they had encountered outside. Those initial creatures looked tormented and the way their arms were fused with their bodies gave them the appearance of being prisoners. These new monsters, on the other hand, though still humanoid in appearance, were much more aggressive than the first ones. Their faces now had clear features, eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. Their arms were free to move and each step they took was deliberate and intense.

"These assholes have claws," Yang said, punching a monster hard enough to break its neck.

"And fangs," Weiss said, stabbing one through the face.

"Heh, we're already giving them a handicap not having our auras active and they still can't take us on."

"Because we're Team RWBY, of course."

"Eh, more like Team WY. We gotta get your boyfriend back so it can be Wooby again."

"I am gonna stab you."

Yang chuckled before leading the way down another hall. The door at the very end opened up into a cavernous room. It seemed to have no ceiling.

"All right, is there gonna be a boss fight in here?" Yang said.

"A what fight?" Weiss said.

"You know. A boss fight. Don't you play videogames?"

"I spend most of my time studying, thank you."

"You're missin' out, dude."

They kept their eyes peeled, checking left and right for threats. All of the torches in this room were already lit and Weiss gave her weapon a rest, switching off the fire Dust, which was probably running low by now.

Something fast and big was rushing at them from the darkness.

"Get ready!" Yang said as they both shifted into fighting stances.

The rumbling turned into pounding as it got closer.

"Man, what is that!"

Weiss switched Myrtenaster to lightning Dust, preparing to stun this gargantuan beast the instant it came within range. Without use of her Semblance, mobility would be severely limited, but there were still plenty of pillars in this hall to work with.

The beast was enormous, probably as big as a small building. This one was even more grotesque than the smaller variants, muscles, bones, and other fasciae visible from the outside while its head had metal things driven into it. This creature was very clearly a tortured being and it was now going to take out its anger and hatred on these two Huntresses.

"I told you it's a boss fight!" Yang said, leaping forward as hard as she could. "First point goes to me! Weiss, get ready for a follow-up!" She brought her fist back to punch the monster in the face, but her punch landed on nothing and she tumbled to the floor. "What the hell was that!"

Weiss shielded herself with her arms as the creature shattered into countless pieces of what looked to be bones of various types from various sources. She looked all around, expecting the bones to reconstitute themselves into something else, but when nothing happened, she got out of the mess just in case.

"You have one hell of a punch," Weiss said to Yang.

"Well, thank you," she said, wiping sweat off her forehead.

"I gotta _hand_ it to you, Yang. You're one well- _armed_ girl."

Yang gave her a dry look. "You think you're funny, but you're not."

"I _am_ funny."

"No."

"I am!"

"That's it," Yang said, marching off. "When we find your boyfriend, I'm gonna make out with him right in front of you."

"You wouldn't!" Weiss said, stomping after her.

"Watch me."

They both burst through the double doors at the end of the gigantic hall. Weiss could sense a presence in here, one she hadn't felt in much too long. He was right ahead.

"Bedivere!" she yelled as she darted into the darkness.

"Weiss!" Yang said following after her. "Sheesh, I was kidding about making out with him!"

They came upon Bedivere, who was on his knees in the center of the room. Weiss grabbed a torch and went to his side.

"Bedivere! You're alive!" she said.

He slowly looked up at her. The instant his eyes hit her face, he recoiled and fell back, scampering away from her.

"Bedivere, what's wrong—"

She looked at the ground. There was blood. Lots of blood. She held her torch up to get a better look at her companion. He was wounded. Everywhere. Gashes, cuts, grazes, missing chunks of flesh.

Weiss dropped both her torch and Myrtenaster, both hands flying to her mouth in horror.

Yang ran up to her. "Weiss, what hap— _what_ the _fuck_?" She looked at Bedivere. She couldn't believe how much blood was on the ground right now. Did this all really come from one man? "H-Holy shit, uh, we need a first aid kit, like, _now_."

Weiss quickly started unbuttoning her coat. It wasn't much, but it would do better than his tattered clothes. She stepped forward when he recoiled again.

"Bedivere!" she cried. "It's me! It's Weiss!"

He took a longer look at her. "W...Weiss?"

She nodded.

"Is it...truly you...this time?"

"What do you mean...oh, no. You went through..." Pushing the thought out of her mind, she went ahead and draped her coat over his body. It would probably do nothing to stop all this bleeding, but from the amount on the floor, he should have been dead a long time ago.

He recoiled from her again as she wrapped him up in her coat as best she could.

"Bedivere, it's me," she said, her voice as soothing as she could get it to be.

His hazel eyes met her pale blues and he stared at them for a few seconds before reality finally set in and he began sobbing.

"Bedivere?"

"Weiss..."

She wrapped her arms all around him, not caring about all the blood she was getting on her dress and boots and leggings. The wounds on his body looked painful and unsurvivable, yet he was fully conscious. What in the world happened to him?

His sobbing turned to crying as he returned her embrace, prompting her to grip him even harder. How could a man like him, a Knight of Kameloth, a warrior who could annihilate hundreds of Grimm without breaking a sweat, end up in such a state? Until now, he was her pillar, the one she could lean on whenever she felt like she was about to collapse. But now, it was the other way around. She needed to be strong for him.

But, then, whose voice was that in her head just now? It was his, it had to be. But the man she was holding in her arms could barely utter her name, let alone give her such words of inspiration the way he just had.

It didn't matter. What mattered was that she had him back.

"Shh," Weiss said, stroking his hair as she held him close. "You're safe now."

Yang kept an eye out for any threats while Bedivere calmed down. It took a while, but soon he was back on his feet again. She took a glance at her two companions. Weiss's coat was on him like a mantle, soaked in his blood. His own clothing was mostly shredded, an entire sleeve missing from his own coat, shirt tattered and nearly nonexistent. She could see his abdominal muscle tissue from where his skin and shirt were missing.

"C'mon," Yang said. "We gotta get the hell outta this place."

"Agreed," Weiss said.

Yang was their designated escort, fending off against every monster they came across. From time to time, Weiss would back her up with Myrtenaster, but for the most part Yang had a good handle on everything. They were halfway through the castle, at least that's what they figured, when Bedivere stopped them.

"We...still won't be able to leave..." he managed, "unless we manage to get rid...of the source of this...anomaly."

"We can think about all that when we have you somewhere safe so we can treat those wounds," Weiss said, beckoning him forward. He wouldn't budge. He was looking at a door to their left. "Bedivere?"

He freed himself from her before limping off to the door.

"Where are you going?" she asked, trying to take him by the hand.

"It's...through here..."

"What's going on back there?" Yang said before joining them. "Hey, that's not the exit. Then again, how the heck would I know?"

They followed after him.

"You're not strong enough to walk on your own," Weiss said.

"I...am a Knight...of Kameloth..." he said as he continued marching forward, pushing open another door. "I shall not be...dissuaded by...a few cuts and grazes..."

She took him by the hand, refusing to allow him to let go of her this time. He turned to her. "At least let me walk with you."

He gave her a single painful nod before continuing to limp forward. She could feel the blood running down his hand, the meat and bone protruding through his broken skin, but she didn't care. She wasn't gonna let a little bit of blood and gore bother her.

Of course, that was a lie. She needed to summon every ounce of fortitude in her body to keep from breaking down and crying herself dry.

Bedivere could sense what felt like a heartbeat. It got stronger and stronger with each step he took. The pressure coming from this room was immense, like a boulder had been placed upon his shoulders. There was no doubting this feeling. It was an anomaly, one that altered the very fabric of reality itself around it. This castle very easily could be nothing more than a construct as well.

In spite of the weight, he pressed onward. Each step felt like an eternity, but Weiss's fingers laced with his gave him more strength than five hundred years of rest ever could. Finally, he pushed open the door.

All three gazed in astonishment at an extremely bright light emanating from some unknown source. Upon getting closer, it became apparent that this object was a sword, driven into the center of a great pedestal.

"What in the world?" Yang said, shielding her eyes from the light before putting on her sunglasses. "Is that a sword?'

The light radiating from the sword was warm. Its touch wiped away all doubts and negativity, leaving in its place peace and tranquility.

 _That is..._ Bedivere thought. _What is that doing here?_

"Do you recognize it?" Weiss asked.

 _That can't be source of the anomaly. Could it?_ He stepped forward.

"Wait, are you sure it's safe?"

"Weiss," Yang said, gesturing for her friend to give him some space.

Weiss gave him one last look before backing away and standing beside Yang.

 _Why are you here?_ Bedivere thought as he stood within arm's reach of the sword. _You belong with your master, not here._

The sword released a pulse of light, as if responding to his thoughts.

 _You wish for me to draw you?_

It let out another pulse.

 _But, I am not worthy to even gaze upon you, let alone wield you._

The sword seemed to shine more brightly, forcing both Weiss and Yang to turn away from it.

 _My king entrusted me to return you to your resting place. Why is it that you have left? Why is it that you have come here?_

Bedivere's mind was flooded with an overwhelming sense of hope. It seemed that the light of the sword was the only thing that prevented him from collapsing on the spot from this flood of sensation.

 _So, you wish to accompany me on my quest. If that is the case, who am I to deny you? If my king hath found me worthy enough to lend me his sword, then so be it!_

He reached out, grasping the sword by its handle. The instant he touched it, it shone with a light that washed away everything else, bathing the entire room in pure white. But it was more than just color and light that blanketed the room now. If the Grimm were themselves the embodiment of pure negativity, then this sword was the very manifestation of everything positive the human race had to offer.

"I accept thee!" Bedivere cried out, tears from his eyes blowing away by force emanating from the sword. "Caliburn!"

He pulled the sword from its resting place. The stone pedestal that it had been plunged into shattered and crumbled into powder as Bedivere raised Caliburn high into the air. He looked up at the sword, overcome with countless emotions. In spite of every sin he had ever committed, this sword still chose him. His King had lent him his most prized possession, the sword of the Once and Future King.

Weiss and Yang watched in awe as every wound on Bedivere's body closed up. In addition, a light emerged from his body as an entire suit of armor manifested upon him piece by piece. It was the same suit of armor Weiss had seen before, that brilliant silver luster with gold outline along with the bright blue cape with the golden dragon embroidery on the center.

"Whoa!" Yang exclaimed. "He really _does_ have shining armor!"

"Our auras are back," Weiss said, looking at her hands.

All of Bedivere's strength had returned to him as well. With Caliburn in hand, he took strong strides to Weiss, standing in front of her. She clasped her hands over her chest as she admired this angelic sight before her. And then, he began to kneel, leaning against his new sword.

"My lady," he said. "Will you take me once more as your knight, whose vow shall be to you and you alone, whose sword shall be drawn only for you, and whose every breath shall be taken for none other? Will you accept this oath of fealty from this knight and never allow it to be broken?"

"Dude, did you just propose to her?" Yang practically screamed.

"I do so accept," Weiss said, her heart skipping multiple beats.

Bedivere took her hand and placed a kiss upon it before standing up. "From this day henceforth, Sir Bedivere, Knight of Kameloth, shall be known as Sir Bedivere of Kameloth, Knight of Lady Weiss Schnee."

Weiss smiled.

"Oh, my god," Yang said. "Dammit, I didn't bring any tissues."

The castle began rumbling, bringing an abrupt end to their celebrations.

"What the hell?" Yang shouted.

"So it was Caliburn that was causing this anomaly," Bedivere said. "And now that I have sated its thirst, the reality it created is about to collapse."

"Collapse? What's gonna happen to us?"

"Yang," Weiss said. "Calm down."

"Calm down? We're about to get crushed in a freakin' cursed castle!"

"Be not afraid, Lady Yang," Bedivere said. "I shall clear a path for us."

He took a few steps ahead of them before holding Caliburn up in the air. "Caliburn, grant me your strength," he whispered. " _Sakral Flamme_!"

Caliburn flashed with an intense light. Bedivere brought the sword forward and it unleashed a column of white-hot fire so intense that half of the entire castle was blown away by its light. They had a clear path to the outside world, but it was still quite a long run.

"Yang, grab on to Bedivere!" Weiss said.

"Huh?" Yang said. "I mean, I'm not complaining, but why?"

"Just do it! Bedivere, you know what to do!"

He nodded with a grin as both girls grabbed on to either side of him. Weiss aimed Myrtenaster down beneath them and then ahead, projecting a countless amount of glyphs. A final one she projected behind launched them forward at speeds that rivaled even Ruby's Semblance.

In less than a second, they were out of the crumbling town. They turned to watch as bizarre flashes of colors and indiscernible images warped and distorted around a brewing storm of rain and lightning. The center of this phenomenon seemed to suck the very landscape into itself until the entire town and castle were completely gone, leaving nothing more than a vast expanse of stripped earth.

The trio was silent for a while, reflecting on what they had all gone through in that hellish place.

"My head hurts," Yang said.

"Mine, too," Weiss said.

They both turned to Bedivere, who shrugged. "I feel fine."

"Oh, sure you do," Yang said, slapping the back of his armor before shaking her hand. "That hurt."

"So, where does this thing come from?" Weiss asked, touching his chest plate, which now bore a golden outline of the Schnee Family Crest on it as well.

"I'm not quite sure myself." He brought up Caliburn, admiring the intricate designs of the hilt along with the golden center of the blade, upon which was inscribed the words "Take Me Up." On the other side of the blade, the words "Cast Me Away" were engraved into the golden insert as well. Only he understood the letters, however, as they were written in the runic tongue.

"That is one pretty sword," Yang said. "Pretty sword for a pretty knight."

Weiss looked at her dryly. "Excuse me, but you heard what he said. He's the Knight of Weiss Schnee, not Yang."

" _Lady_ Weiss Schnee," Bedivere corrected her.

"Exactly."

They all shared a chuckle.

"So, what now?" Yang said.

"Mistral is not that far from here, right?" Bedivere said. "Let's go. Your friends should be waiting for us there."

"And no more stopovers," Weiss said. "Especially at creepy castles."

"I second that," Yang said. "Although, I don't think we saw a single Creep there, so it couldn't have been a creep-y castle."

Both Weiss and Bedivere let out sighs of frustration before leaving Yang behind.


	12. Chapter XII

CHAPTER XII

 _Eine Lang Erwartete Wiedervereinigung_

It was midday when Mistral was within sighting distance. Bedivere stood atop a rock, surveying the valley below. His blue cape caught a breeze and Weiss took the time to absorb the sight.

"You've been real quiet lately," Yang said to her. "And you keep staring at him."

"Hush!" Weiss said quietly. "He's been through a lot, okay? I just wanna give him a little room."

"That and you just _love_ to think about how it must be to take off that armor piece by shiny piece, right? Hmm?"

She reddened. "Don't think of me in such vulgar terms."

"You're even starting to talk like him. Man. That proposal, though."

"That wasn't a proposal! And stop talking about it!"

"You know you liked it. Cuz I liked it. You lucky girl."

"Ugh!"

"We should make it to the city before nightfall," Bedivere said.

Weiss's guard dropped instantly at the sound of his voice. "Do you wish to rest somewhere along the way?"

"I shall be fine until we are within the city. Caliburn was once the sword of my king. Even now it grants me strength. Do _you_ require rest, my lady?"

"No, I will be fine as well."

"If you so desire, I could carry you until we reach the city."

She reddened. Of course she wanted him to carry her, but she was never going to say that out loud. Besides, that would be _way_ too desperate of her. "Your offer is greatly appreciated, but not necessary."

"Very well, then. Let us be off."

Weiss watched as he led the way. Yang stopped just beside her.

"You can't even be yourself around him anymore," she chuckled.

"Yang, I am going to cut your hair!" Weiss said, chasing after her friend.

Both girls lagged behind Bedivere as he led the way to Mistral. After everything they had gone through, the rest of the way seemed a little too quiet, too good to be true. Weiss caught a glimpse of his sword's exquisitely ornate hilt. The handle itself was wrapped in brown leather, finished with a thin golden cord that crossed a total of four times through the center of the grip. The pommel was circular, made of gold-washed steel and with detailed engravings. Embedded in one side of the pommel was an octagon-cut, deep red ruby about the size of a gold ounce. On the other side was a dark blue sapphire which matched the size and cut of the ruby.

The cross-guard was a whole inch in thickness all the way around, gradually sweeping upward in the direction of the blade. At either end of the guard, a dark green, trillion-cut emerald was embedded into the gold-coated steel. All along the cross-guard were tiny diamonds, each one a different cut from the other.

It was this sword that had washed them with a brilliant light that nullified all of the darkness that had threatened to swallow them whole. It was no wonder the Grimm weren't sensing them. Even now, the sword seemed to radiate an aura of its own, driving away every bit of negativity.

"So," Weiss began, trotting to catch up with her knight, "what's the deal with that sword?"

"Yeah," Yang said, running up to his right side and clinging to his arm. "Tell us a story."

"Hey!" Weiss went over and wedged herself between them, pushing Yang away. "Hands off!"

Yang couldn't help but laugh, which Bedivere joined in on.

"For some reason, it just reached out to me," he said, drawing Caliburn. "This is going to sound strange, but it calls itself Caliburn."

"Caliburn?" Weiss said.

"What do you mean 'calls itself'?" Yang said. "Like, you could hear it talking?"

"Even before we entered its chamber, it called out to me. It was when you were shouldering me, Weiss."

"That's why you went off," she said.

"Yes. It beckoned to me. And then as I stood before it, its voice entered my mind. 'Take me up'."

"Is that what that says?"

"Yes. It is the same language as the runes that appear when I use magic."

"How do you know?" Yang asked.

"It all flooded my mind when the sword made contact with me."

"Like an instant language download?"

"Perhaps."

"What's written on the other side?" Weiss asked.

He flipped the sword. "'Cast me away'"

"Take me up, cast me away. What does it mean?"

He shrugged. "All I know is that this sword is extremely magical in nature, perhaps even more so than my arm."

"Magic, huh?"

He turned to Weiss. "Do you believe in it now?"

She looked up into his hazel eyes, holding back her answer, which was a shrug. He let out a chuckle.

"After everything you've seen, you still doubt magic exists, hmm?"

"I believe in magic," Yang said, darting to his left side and clinging to his arm.

Weiss was immediately squeezing herself between them again. She folded her arms across her chest, glaring at Yang as they continued walking. The latter gave her a sinister grin.

"You'd better keep a close eye on your magical knight in shining armor," Yang said, placing a hand on her hip. "Cuz if you don't, I might steal him away one night and get him drunk."

"I dare you to try," Weiss said.

"Now, now," Bedivere said, moving between the two girls before wrapping either arm around their waists. "It pains me to have two good friends fighting over me like this."

"Ew," Yang said, pushing off of him.

"Get away from us!" Weiss said, freeing herself.

The two girls scurried ahead of the knight to the gates of Mistral, stepping in before their knight. The city itself was built directly into the walls of the valley, with the upper levels providing the most luxury and safety. The very bottom, through which the river flowed, constituted the seedier segments of society.

"Halt," a guard said, focusing specifically on Bedivere.

"Oh, he's with us," Weiss said.

"And you are?"

Both girls showed identification. "Weiss Schnee."

"Yang Xiao-Long," the blonde one said. "Mister handsome back there lost his ID so he's gonna need a new one printed out."

"That won't be a problem," the guard said. "We'll just need to process him. What's with his clothing, by the way?"

"Good afternoon, sir," Bedivere said as he joined the two girls. "I am Sir Bedivere of Kameloth, Knight of—"

"Knight of Atlas!" Weiss finished his sentence. "He's a Knight of Atlas."

"Wait, the Atlas military came up with a new class?" the guard said.

"Well, it's sort of a special class. He's a specialist."

"Oh, like Winter Schnee. Must be recent."

"Yup. It's a new class after all."

"All right, you guys can go on ahead."

"Haven Academy is up that way, right?"

"Yes, ma'am. Follow the road up to the right and there are signs that'll point you to the campus."

"Thank you very much."

The trio proceeded up the road to their destination.

"May I pose a question, Weiss?" Bedivere said.

"What's up?"

"Why did you correct me?"

"Well, it's just...I mean, people are gonna ask a lot of questions if you go around saying you're a 'Knight of Weiss Schnee' every time somebody asks."

" _Lady_ Weiss Schnee."

Yang chuckled.

"Yeah, something tells me that wouldn't help," Weiss said.

"Does it embarrass you?" Bedivere asked.

Weiss reddened. "Of course not!"

He walked ahead, turning around to walk backwards in pace with them. "Not even a little bit?"

She shook her head. "Nope!"

"Are you certain, my lady?"

The redness intensified. "Bedivere?"

"Yes, my lady?"

She felt a shiver crawl up her back. "Please."

"Anything for you, my lady."

There was another shiver. "Dammit." She looked into his face, about to rebuke him for teasing her so much, but his smile made her nearly go weak in the knees. "It's just, starting to get excessive."

"Which she totally likes," Yang said.

"Yang!"

"Yes, Lady Weiss?"

"Wha?"

Yang caught up with Bedivere and gave him a high five.

"You two," Weiss began, bringing up Myrtenaster, "are so dead."

"Run!"

Weiss chased after both of them all the way up until the gates that led to the academy grounds. She switched over to fire Dust and pointed her weapon at them for a strike. Sensing danger, Bedivere leapt to the side to dodge while Yang, surprised by the sudden opening of the gates, dove to the ground.

"Huh?" Weiss said, too late to stop her fiery attack.

The fireball hit Ruby square in the face, blackening her skin and singeing her hair. She coughed twice before opening her eyes.

"Uhh, was that really necessary?" she said, fanning away the smoke with her hand.

"Ruby!" Yang cried out before running to her sister.

"Yang?"

The elder grabbed the younger by the hands and swung her around before giving her the tightest hug she could give without breaking her in half.

"Yang!" Ruby cried out, hugging her sister back. "It's so good to see you!" She noticed Yang's silence and the extended embrace. "Hey, what's wrong? Are you crying?"

"Heh," Yang said with a sob. "It's nothing. I'm just...happy to see you, that's all. I'm glad you're safe, Ruby."

"Hey, why are you getting all serious?" She tried freeing herself. "Lemme go! I can't breathe!"

"No!" Yang said, squeezing harder and making her flail about. "I'm never gonna let my baby sister go! Never, ever!"

"Are you all right?" Bedivere asked, jogging up to them alongside Weiss. "That fireball hit you square in the head."

Yang let her sister go, dropping her to the ground. In an instant, Ruby was upright again, immediately in Weiss's face.

"What was that for?" she yelled.

" _That_ was for when we first met!" Weiss said.

"Ooooh! I'm gonna sneeze on you again!"

"I dare you!"

They growled at each other before Bedivere stepped between them.

"Now, now," he said. "You've only just reunited."

"Whoa," Ruby said, knocking on his armor and making a clanging sound. "Who is _this_ guy?"

"Oh, that's Weiss's knight," Yang said. "His name is Sir Bedivere of Kameloth, Knight of Lady Weiss Schnee." She spoke his entire title with a faux British accent.

"I'm Ruby!" she said as she extended her hand.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Lady Ruby," Bedivere said as he took her hand and kissed it.

She gasped, quickly withdrawing her hand and hiding behind her sister. "Yang? Why am I feeling weird?"

"Probably cuz a stranger just kissed your hand," she said. "Don't worry, though. He kissed my hand, too."

"Dang it! I thought I was special."

"But you _are_ special," Bedivere said before pulling out a red rose and holding it out for her.

Ruby quickly dashed from around her sister, snatched the rose, and retreated back behind Yang.

"What the?" Weiss said. "Where the heck did you get that?"

"Over there," Bedivere said, pointing to a rose bush off to the side.

"Oh, so you go around pilfering people's gardens, too?"

"Well, he didpilfer your heart, ey, Weiss?" Yang said, to which Ruby grinned sinisterly.

Weiss's face was an instant tomato and she stomped past everybody, forcing her way between the sisters. "I am going to take a cold shower. And then I am going to cut your hair, Yang. And steal your scythe, Ruby."

"What about me?" Bedivere asked.

She didn't answer him.

"Man," Yang said. "Ice cold. You're not even worth a haircut. Or theft."

Bedivere chuckled with the two sisters. "What now?"

"I need a friggin' bath myself," Yang said. "And from your condition earlier, you'd _better_ take one."

"Of course."

"Ooh! Ooh!' Ruby exclaimed. "You could go join Weiss!"

Bedivere's face was also an instant tomato. "On second thought, I think I will go to the marketplace."

The sisters watched as he headed back down the road to the city. The turned to each other and laughed out loud.

"C'mon, sis," Yang said. "We've gotta talk about all the crap we've been through."

"Yay! Let's get some ice cream!"


	13. Chapter XIII

CHAPTER XIII

 _Der Exzentrische Schmied_

Bedivere wandered around Mistral's marketplace, browsing the countless stalls and stores all around. One of the stall owners offered him some fruit, which he would have bought if he had smaller currency than entire gold ounces. He needed to find a bank right away. He spotted some commotion to the right. Someone was trying to steal fish from a stall. He moved to action, but stopped upon witnessing the stall's owner leap from his spot, give the would-be thief a smack on the head, and then take the fish back.

 _This is no different from back home,_ he thought, continuing through a bazaar. At the very back was the First Bank of Mistral. He should be able to exchange some of his gold over there.

None of the guards stopped him as he walked in. It seemed that being dressed in a full suit of armor with a sword hanging to his side was not out of the ordinary around here. He noticed other people with an assortment of weapons hanging from their belts.

"Next customer, please!" a teller called out. He approached her right away. "What can I help you with, sir?"

"Sir Bedivere, madam," he said with a bow, causing her to giggle. "I would like to exchange some gold for the local currency, please."

"Right away."

He pulled up a flap of his armor to access his satchel, counting ten gold coins before setting them on the counter.

"Hmm, I've never seen this design on gold rounds before," the teller said as she examined one of the coins. "Feels like an ounce in weight. Lemme go get my manager, okay?"

Bedivere gave her another bow before turning around to survey the place. There were a lot of people here. It seemed everyone was armed, even the tellers. It shouldn't have been surprising, considering how many Grimm he and Weiss had encountered on the road here.

 _Weiss,_ he thought, her face flashing in his mind. He closed his eyes, envisioning her smile and those sparkling, pale blue eyes.

"Ah, Mister Bedivere, yes?" a man said as he approached him.

"I am," Bedivere said, turning to the man. "You are the manager?"

"Call me Akiyama."

"I shall, Akiyama-san."

He chuckled. "I am glad to see that you are aware of our customs, Bedivere-san. Would you come and join me?"

"I would be delighted to."

The manager gestured to the teller to collect the gold coins and bring them to the back.

"First, I would like to welcome you to Mistral," Akiyama said. "Please correct me if I am wrong in my assumption that this is your first time here."

"My first time to the city, yes," Bedivere said. "I just arrived here today with my companions. However, we have been roaming the countryside for the last few weeks now."

"You must be a Huntsman from the way you are dressed and armed."

"Well, yes, I suppose so. I consider myself a knight first and foremost. To protect the innocent is my duty."

"That is quite the honorable choice of profession." He led the way into his office, gesturing for Bedivere to take a seat. "Would you like some tea?"

"That would be delightful. Although, I must ask why I am being given such preferential treatment. I do not see other customers being led to the back rooms and offered tea."

"You must realize that it isn't every day that we get foreigners in here carrying bags of gold." He handed Bedivere his teacup.

"I suppose that is true." He took a sip. It tasted like mass-produced, prepackaged tea.

"It is my job, as this bank's manager, to treat potential investors as well as I can."

"Ah, I think I understand. But I would not wish to waste your time as I am not here to invest, only to trade for your local currency."

"Hmm, I figured as much. Are you sure about this? There are plenty of opportunities you might miss out on if you choose not to invest."

"What kinds of opportunities?"

"The chance to bankroll different companies and startups that could earn you money and maybe even grant you freebies."

"Do you have any smiths around?"

"Weaponsmiths?"

"And armorers."

Akiyama sat in thought. "There is one I can think of that might need an investment. He is...quite the oddball, though."

"What is his name?"

"William Hillphire."

"Is he just starting?"

"I wouldn't call him a new smith, since he has been here for quite some time now, but...his eccentricity has caused his sales to be somewhat...lackluster quite recently."

"I should wish to meet with him."

"Before you invest, of course."

"I don't mind investing in him now."

"You're quite the...adventurous investor, aren't you?"

"I'm not an investor at all. I am a knight who fights evil. I am placing all of my faith in you to ensure that what I am investing in is not absolute rubbish."

He chuckled.

"Is there something wrong with Mister Hillphire's products?"

"Oh, no, not at all. His weapons and armor are unmatched. The amount of innovation he puts into his equipment is astounding. It's just...well, his personality."

"I see." He reached into his pouch. "Will thirty gold coins be a good investment into his business?"

"That's, actually, probably too much—"

"Then, it's settled." He stacked all thirty gold coins on the table. "This shall be my contribution to his work. Should I go and meet with him now?"

"Y-Yes, I suppose so. First we need to draft out the contrac—"

"I don't believe that will be necessary," Bedivere said before sliding a single gold coin over to Akiyama.

"Or I guess I could fill them out for you."

"Sir Bedivere of..." He thought about what Weiss said. "Sir Bedivere, Knight of Kameloth. That shall be my title."

"Sir Bedivere of Kameloth," Akiyama said as he scribbled the information down on a notepad. "And you are from?"

"Atlas."

"Ah, that explains the silver and blue uniform. Okay, I think I can manage the rest of the contract between you and Mister Hillphire. Mishima-san should have your Lien ready for you at her booth along with a map and directions to the Hillphire Forge. I had her give you a discount for the exchange fee."

"Your hospitality is greatly appreciated, Akiyama-san," Bedivere said, finishing his tea and leaving the room, heading straight for the teller he had been working with.

"Ah, Sir Bedivere," she greeted. "Okay, so the exchange rate for gold is 150,000 Lien per ounce of gold, and so the overall exchange was 1,500,000 Lien. Our usual foreign exchange fee is 3% of the total amount exchanged, but you were charged the 1% discounted rate for your business with us, leaving your total at 1,485,000 Lien."

"You mean the investment."

"Yes, Sir Bedivere. And I do wish you success on that new business endeavor!"

"I certainly appreciate your assistance."

She handed the Lien to him in a pouch and he bowed before leaving the bank. He checked his map, sensing a presence coming at him quickly from the right. He deflected a hand reaching for his money pouch. Bedivere looked at the would-be thief, noting something peculiar about him as he fled. He wore normal clothes, stood on two legs, and had a head full of blonde hair, but Bedivere could swear that he had a tail.

 _That was odd,_ he thought as he continued down the path the map pointed out.

Hillphire Forge was located just outside of Mistral's city limits, at the base of the mountain just where the grasslands began. It was the ideal location for heavy weapons testing without being a nuisance to the neighbors. He passed by the remains of two buildings. One was completely destroyed while the other was barely hanging on, threatening to fall over at any given moment.

His destination was at the far end, where the paved road gave way to a dirt road instead. Beyond the forge was a vast expanse of grassland, but between the grassland and the forge proper was an area of dirt, pockmarked with craters and scorched trees. The smell of metalwork was in the air, but no banging and clanging was going on right now. He must have been with a customer.

The establishment was composed of three main sections, the forge itself, the warehouse, and the testing building, the last of which was extremely well-reinforced. Bedivere wondered what kinds of weapons necessitated such a sturdy-looking structure. He stood in a doorway, looking around. This forge was unlike any other he'd seen. Strange contraptions and devices lined the walls of the warehouse. Most of these devices' functions were unknown to this knight. He spotted a man he presumed was the smith; he was dressed in an apron and the rest of his clothes were covered in soot and metal shavings. One of the customers struck him as unusual.

There was no mistaking it. That was the young man with the tail that had tried to steal from him earlier.

"You there!" he said, drawing his sword and starting in a jog toward the pair of customers.

"Aw, great," the blonde man said.

"Jeez, what did you do this time?" the black-haired female said before turning to the blacksmith. "We'll be back when this blows over."

"All right, then," the blacksmith said.

"Stop right there!" Bedivere yelled before the blonde man leaped up high, landing in some rafters before looking down and grinning at him. Bedivere returned the grin with a glare before the young man leaped out of the building through a high window. He turned to the man's female companion, momentarily meeting her amber eyes as she darted by. He noticed something extremely peculiar. He could have sworn that she had an extra set of ears atop her head, ears which twitched as she ran by him.

"That shining armor and that sword," the blacksmith said as he approached him. "You must be my new benefactor."

"Bedivere, Knight of Kameloth," he said as he sheathed his sword.

"Hold on a minute, lemme see that there."

Bedivere pulled out his sword again, handing it to the smith.

"Hmm. Does this sword have a name?"

"Caliburn."

"I see. Interesting." He handed the sword back to Bedivere. "If you're looking to get work done on your weapon there, good sir, you'll have to go elsewhere. I'm afraid anything I do to that will only break my equipment."

He chuckled. "Yes, I am aware of that. I did not come here to have work done on Caliburn. This edge stays sharp indefinitely."

"I can tell. So, my good knight, why did you decide to bankroll me?"

"I don't actually know. I thought it would be a good idea. Akiyama, the manager of the First Bank of Mistral was the one to suggest your forge before all the others. Do you believe in fate, blacksmith?"

"Call me Hillphire," he said, "and yes, I suppose I do. To an extent, of course."

"Well, I took his mention of you before the others as a sign. And so I decided to do just that. And to come and visit to see what I was getting myself into."

"With a sword like that, though, I don't know how I'll be of any help to you."

"You seem to be well-known for your innovation. Surprising for one who appears so young. Twenty? Twenty-one?"

"Nineteen, actually."

"You must have started young."

"I did. Been an enthusiast for as long as I can remember. Apprenticed under several smiths from all over and now here I am."

"Might you show me some of your wares?"

"Of course!"

"Oh, but before that." He walked over to the most outrageous contraption he could find. "What is this?"

"Ah, that is my coffee maker. Would you like a little pick-me-up?"

"I'm more curious as to how this creates coffee."

"That ball there, the one with the number '8' written on it. Push it into the hole."

Bedivere looked over the machine for a bit before shrugging and doing as he was told. The ball fell into the hole, rolling down a set of rails before coming to rest against a button, which activated a leaf blower, which pushed an umbrella down a path toward a domino set, which was perfectly coordinated to activate three buttons at once, which then activated four lights that heated up a small beaker of water enough to boil it, sending steam through a series of tubes before the steam condensed into a drop of water, which fell onto a set of wires, short-circuiting them and activating a coffee machine at the very end of the entire contraption.

Unable to decide what to think about all of this, Bedivere hesitated as he reached for the paper cup in the machine. The coffee was actually good. It needed no cream or sugar added to it. The beans used in this blend must have had their own sweetness compared to more bitter cups he had enjoyed in the past.

"Do you care for the coffee?" Hillphire asked.

"I'm surprised at how good it is," Bedivere said.

"I grow those beans myself. I harvest them from special elephant dung."

Bedivere coughed. "Did you say 'elephant dung'?"

"I did. Is there a problem with that?"

"Not at all." He set down the cup. "Now, then, onto your wares."

"Ah, yes. The first one most customers ask about is this."

"A pole axe."

"I'm glad you know your historical weapons."

"Well, I _am_ a knight."

"Indeed you are!"

"What does this do besides cut and bash things?"

"I shall give you a live demonstration," Hillphire said, taking down the weapon from the rack and swinging it around as they headed toward the weapon testing grounds.

"From the way you wield that weapon," Bedivere began, "I would say that you are more than a mere blacksmith."

"Oh, you flatter me, Sir Bedivere. I am a mere blacksmith. I also happen to be enthusiastic about my trade."

"I see. Also, feel free to refer to me without my title."

"As you wish, Bedivere. And now, for a demonstration!"

Hillphire swung the weapon with the agility and skill of a seasoned spearman, his form and footwork spot on and solid. His strikes were also expertly made.

"Are you self-trained?" Bedivere asked.

"How did you know?"

"Your style appears to be a mix of different martial arts."

"Yes, I do pick up what I can from the many warriors I have encountered."

"I see."

"Ah, you have yet to see. This is what makes my pole axe so special."

The weapon, though simple in appearance before, transformed into another weapon of some sort. Bedivere at first thought it was a firearm, at least until it started spewing a fountain of flames at the targets downrange. It was at this moment that he understood why this building was so well-reinforced.

"How's that for a weapon, eh?" Hillphire said to an open-mouthed Bedivere.

"Astounding. Tell me, do you have others?"

The weaponry on display had characteristics unlike any Bedivere had seen. There were throwing knives that exploded on contact and could be retracted by the owner through remote-controlled tiny robot legs, there were axes that transformed into shotguns, spears that transformed into bows, briefcases that morphed into enormous cannons, as well as more exotic things like guitars that doubled as bladed weapons and all manner of firearm.

"All this is impressive," Bedivere said, "however, I do have a question of you."

"Anything for one who has just given me a 4.3 million Lien investment."

"Do you work with machinery?"

Hillphire spread out his arms, gesturing at all the equipment around them.

Bedivere chuckled. "I mean vehicles."

"Oh, do you wish to have a truck-mounted 74mm autocannon? Or perhaps built in mine launchers?"

"More outrageous than that."

Hillphire stood in thought. "A transforming vehicle?"

"That's more along the lines of what I had in mind."

"Tell me more. You have my curiosity piqued."

"I also wish for you to craft two swords for me."

"What is wrong with the sword at your side?"

"I am...not worthy of it."

"I don't think I understand."

"It's nothing. Can you build an indestructible sword?"

"Not quite indestructible. Nigh-indestructible, yes. Some earth Dust and gravity Dust to hold everything together and I should have something for you quite readily. What shape will it take?"

"Katana."

"Interesting. A knight who wants a katana forged for him?"

"I trained under an Eastern master for a time."

"I see. Now, for the second sword."

"A claymore. I leave the creativity entirely up to you."

Hillphire stood in thought for a moment. "I have just the idea. All right, now that the more mundane work is out of the way, I am very interested in this transforming vehicle you brought up."

"Before that, I must find a suitable vehicle for the project."

"I can work with any piece of machinery you send me."

"That's reassuring. I must be headed to the academy soon. I'll—"

"Haven?" Hillphire interrupted him.

"Yes. Is there something there?"

"No, not something, just someone."

"I see. A girl?"

Hillphire reddened. "Just someone with whom I share a passion for weapons and machinery."

"Hmm. There aren't many girls who fit that description."

"Well, that's because this one is special."

"I know that feeling. Tell me her name and I'll deliver her a gift on your behalf."

"No, I can't, I'm too shy."

"Shy? I don't believe that."

"Oh, very well. Her name is Ruby."

"Did you say 'Ruby'?"

"Do you know her?"

Bedivere began laughing. "I shall deliver her a rose on your behalf when I return."

"Would you? You would have me eternally in your debt if you could."

"Mister William Hillphire, I believe this shall be the start of a great partnership."

"I agree, Sir Bedivere of Kameloth."

—

"So," Ruby began. "Weiss has been in the shower for a long time."

"I mean, she and her husband were out on the road for almost a month," Yang said.

Ruby giggled. "You need to say that when they're around."

"You know I will."

"Anyway, I mean _you_ were out there for a long time, too."

"Yeah, but jeez, I know how to conserve water."

"You mean all that water that's falling down the cliffs into the river below? Those millions of gallons that go through this valley every day?"

"Ruby."

"Yes, sis?"

"Shut up."

"Okay!"

"Look, the princess has been through a lot. Give her a break."

"Did somebody say 'princess'?"

The sisters turned to the door. Jaune, Ren, and Nora walked in.

"Yang?" Jaune said.

"Sup!" she said.

"Whoa!"

They all took a seat at the table with the two girls.

"Ice cream?" Ruby said, passing the tub around.

"Sure!" Nora said, digging right in.

"I'll have some," Ren said, taking a small scoop with a spoon from the table.

"Yeah, I think I'll wait for Nora to finish," Jaune said. "So, how've you been, Yang?"

"Just kickin' ass and takin' names," Yang said. "You know, teenage girl stuff."

She shared a unison high five with Nora and Ruby.

"The team's almost all here," Jaune said. "We're just missing Blake and Snow Angel."

No one said a word about it, but the names of two other missing party members were in all of their minds and hearts.

"Weiss is actually here," Ruby said, pushing that heartache aside.

"Is that who's in the shower?" Nora said, her words muffled by ice cream. She let out a groan as she rocked side to side, her eyes crossing.

"I told you not to eat too fast," Ren said, catching her as she fell over.

"I'm okay!" she yelled, continuing to dig into the big tub of ice cream.

"Yeah, she's the one taking five days to go wash her hair," Yang said.

Ruby gasped. "Maybe she bathes in milk."

"What?"

"I bet that's how she keeps her skin and hair so white!"

"Ruby, that makes _no_ sense."

"I read about it in a magazine once," Jaune said.

"Jaune, what the heck kinds of magazines do you go around reading?"

"Er, Cosmo?"

Yang stared at him for a second. "I'm not even gonna ask."

"It's how he keeps his hair 'naturally blonde'," Ren said, making Nora snicker.

Jaune turned to him. "Hey, I will have you know that this hair stays naturally blonde on its own!"

Weiss stopped in the doorway as she headed to her room. She was in the middle of drying her hair with her towel when she noticed the team assembled together. Jaune vanished, reappearing with a guitar in his hands.

"No," Weiss said.

"Aww, I didn't even start playing yet!" he whined.

"The answer is still no."

"Yeah, Jaune," Yang said. "Weiss is taken now."

"Huh?" Jaune, Ren, and Nora said at the same time before turning to Weiss, who growled at Yang as her face turned bright red.

"By who?" they said in unison again.

"By _whom_ , not 'who,' you flunks," Weiss said before marching off to her room. She hadn't even made it three steps before they surrounded her, dragging her back to the main hall.

"You are not leaving until you answer some questions, young lady!" Nora said.

"You've got it all wrong," Yang said with a grin. "It's not young lady anymore. It's Lady Weiss Schnee."

"Okay, what are we missing here?" Ren said.

The door to the dormitory opened and they turned to watch a man in a suit of glistening armor walk in, searching for someone.

"Ah, Ruby," Bedivere said. "This is for you."

"Huh?" she said. "Another rose?"

"From your blacksmith." He noticed Jaune flinch.

"Ohhh," she said, sniffing the rose. "Hey, this smells exactly like the one you gave me earlier!"

"Well, it was free, so..."

"Thanks!"

He bowed. "Ah, there you are, my lady," he said, turning to Weiss, whose eyes were closed, her fists clenched. "Weiss?"

Without a word, she stomped away.

"Dude," Yang said, "you really gotta stop giving other girls flowers and stuff. Or do it when Weiss isn't looking."

"Did I do something to offend her?"

She sighed heavily. "I give up. I really, really give up."

"Wait," Jaune said, " _you_ are Weiss's, uh, her, umm..."

"Knight," Bedivere said. "I am Sir Bedivere of Kameloth, Knight of Lady Weiss Schnee."

"Whoa," Nora said. "I mean, you know, I sorta knew she'd end up with some gentleman kind of guy, but a knight?" She leaned in toward Yang to whisper. "He talks all weird, too."

"Yeah, that's Bedivere," Yang said. "Mister Perfect, perfect for Miss Perfect."

"Hmm," Ren said. "Is that armor real?"

"What makes you ask that?" Bedivere said.

"Nothing. Just picking up some weird vibes from it, that's all."

"Well, you can see it and you can touch it. Would that convince you of it being real?"

"Seeing and touching does not necessarily denote reality. After all, there are such things as illusions of the mind."

"We have a philosopher among us. You are?"

"Lie Ren."

Bedivere turned to the others.

"Nora Valkyrie!"

"Jaune Arc, but you may call me Sir Jaune Arc."

"Very well, Sir Jaune," Bedivere said.

"Don't listen to him," Yang said. "He's just Jaune to everybody."

"Yes, I was going to say," Jaune said, "that I would prefer it if you would address me without my title."

Bedivere smiled. "Then, you shall address me without my title as well." He held out a hand, which Jaune looked at before reaching out and shaking. "It is an honor to finally meet all of Lady Weiss's friends."

"The honor is, uh, all ours!" Jaune said.

Bedivere looked at the open threshold to the hallway.

"Go to her," Yang said. "You did kinda piss her off. You owe her an apology."

Bedivere let out a heavy sigh before entering the hall, searching for Weiss's room. The architecture in all of Mistral was similar to the ones Bedivere had encountered in the Far East long ago. The doors here in particular were sliding doors made of paper and wood. He stopped at the only closed door, sitting down against the wall beside it.

"Weiss?" he called out softly. "Are you in there?"

There was no answer.

"Please tell me what bothers you."

The door slid open. She was standing above, looking down at him. She was dressed in a blue nightgown.

"Weiss?"

"I'm going to bed," she said. "It's been a long day."

He bowed his head. "Then, sleep well, my lady."

"Am I really your lady?"

Her question left him dumbfounded. She shut the door before he could answer. He got up to go back to the main hall, nearly jumping out of his skin with all of the faces staring at him.

"What are all of you doing here?" he said, paling from the fright.

"He's an idiot," Nora said.

"Total idiot," Jaune said.

"Incompetent," Ren said.

"Plain heartless," Ruby said.

"And an idiot," Yang said.

They all simultaneously turned and walked away from him.

"Wh-What?" he said. "What have I done?"

"What _haven't_ you done?" Yang said. "Your room's over this way. I figured it'd be smart to put you as far away from Weiss as we could get you. Go take a bath. You stink."


	14. Chapter XIV

CHAPTER XIV

 _Die Lücke Zwischen Uns_

Weiss was first to wake up among everyone in the dorm. At least she thought she was until she smelled breakfast. She went over to the kitchen to see who was cooking. It was Bedivere. She leaned in the doorway, watching as he flipped a pancake, an attempt that failed horribly.

"You're doing it wrong," Ren said, rejoining him in the kitchen. He was also dressed in an apron. "Here, like this."

Bedivere watched his demonstration. "Hmm. So you turn the pan just a little bit as you toss it up."

"The problem is you're thinking about it too much. Although, I guess that's not surprising given our audience."

Weiss gasped.

"Oh, good morning, Weiss," Bedivere said.

She didn't say anything.

"How would you like your eggs?"

"Fertilized," Yang said, passing by Weiss with a yawn.

"Uh, okay, there are kids here!" Ruby said, next to walk by a reddening Weiss.

"Boop!" Nora said, poking her in the side and making her flinch.

"Hola, Snow Angel," Jaune said.

Weiss covered her face with one hand, the other hand tucked under her elbow. She stood in place for a long time before Ruby beckoned for her to join them at the table.

"C'mon! Your eggs are gonna get all cold and icky!" she said.

"I hope you like sunny side up," Bedivere said to her, setting a plate for her.

Weiss sighed heavily before sitting at the table between Ruby and Nora. Bedivere took a seat right next to Jaune across from her after tossing his apron on the counter.

"Pancakes?" Ren asked.

"Oooh! Oooh!" Nora said.

"Eight high and a whole bottle of syrup just for you."

"Yiss!"

He set down plates of pancakes for everyone else before taking a seat across from Nora next to Bedivere. Weiss looked at the crumpled up mess of a pancake on her plate.

"He made that for you with love," Ren said, draping a napkin from his collar before starting on the eggs. "Bedivere, your pancake making might not be that good, but your eggs are perfect."

"Thank you," the knight said.

Weiss tried a piece of the pancake first. Contrary to its ghastly appearance, the taste was not bad at all. It could use a little butter, though. But the eggs were just as Ren had described: absolutely perfect. Perfectly cooked without being too raw or too tough. And the amount of salt and pepper on it was just right. It was almost as if he knew her tastes by heart.

"My goodness," Yang said, stretching out her arm. "Why am I so tired?"

"Oh yeah," Nora said. "You never told us about your guys' adventures."

"Yeah, we told you our side," Jaune said. "It's your turn."

"Well, ours wasn't as exciting as yours," Yang started. "I mean, I joined in at the very end of it, so yeah. I have no idea what these two went through other than what they already told me."

"Wait," Nora said, turning to Bedivere, "so, how did _you two_ meet?"

"Oh," the knight began, "she summoned me."

"Summoned you?"

"You know about her Semblance, yes?"

"The whole glyph thing," Jaune said.

"Right. One of the powers afforded by her Semblance is the ability to summon past foes that she has triumphed against. Roughly three weeks ago, she attempted to summon one such creation. The summon failed, at least that's what she had initially thought."

"This guy swooped in just at the last second and saved our princess's life," Yang said.

Weiss shrank into her seat.

"I wish I coulda seen it for myself. I mean, I can kinda imagine how it happened. You know he takes her up in his arms and flies her around?"

"Whaaaa?" Ruby said. "I want my own knight now!"

"Ruby, you can already fly."

"Not like that though!"

"I can't actually fly," Bedivere said. "I can merely jump long distances."

"Yeah, like flying," Yang said.

"Wait, what else can you do?" Jaune said.

"He has magic. Oh, oh, show him a fireball!"

"I don't think that is such a good idea indoors," Bedivere chuckled.

"So you don't use Dust," Ren said.

The knight shook his head. "Although perhaps I should start. This arm of mine does not afford me infinite power."

"Your magic is in your arm?" Nora asked.

"Yes."

He held out his hand before summoning the power of his Water Rune. He did not cast any spells, but the blue mark appeared on the back of his hand, a set of four concentric circles with runic text between the lines. The image itself looked alive, as though some external source were projecting the image onto his skin, but upon closer inspection, which Nora was intensely doing, it appeared to be coming right out of his very flesh.

"Nora," Ren started, "you're gonna fall over if you keep leaning—"

Before he finished his sentence, she lost her balance and her face went right into a platter of scrambled eggs.

Ruby and Jaune started giggling together while Ren put a hand to his forehead.

"It almost looks like Weiss's glyphs," Nora said, scraping egg off of her face onto her plate. "Just...well, different."

"You mentioned something about that when you were explaining stuff to me," Yang said, leaning on her hand as she rested from all the eating she just did. "Something about how your powers and stuff probably correlate to everything about her, right?"

"Yes, that is my speculation," Bedivere said.

"So, then," Jaune began, "what about that armor you were wearing yesterday? Which, you are curiously no longer wearing."

"I have a theory about that as well. You all possess aura, correct?"

Everybody nodded.

"I do not possess such a thing."

"Don't cut your hand again," Weiss said.

He chuckled. "I won't. You'll all just have to take my word for it that my skin will be cut if I were to bring a knife to it."

"So," Ruby said, "you're thinking that your armor stuff is like your version of an aura?"

"Exactly. It appears on me when I need it. So far I have yet to be able to summon it at will."

"That's gonna be problematic," Ren said. "If you don't have full control over your powers and stuff, it won't be good in a battle."

"Yes, that is why I intend to do some training after we finish breakfast."

"There's a dojo in the back where all the students do their training when school is in session."

"I shall join you."

Since Ren and Bedivere had prepared breakfast, Weiss and Ruby volunteered to do the dishes. The rest got ready for training.

"Hey, so," Ruby said, "why aren't you two talking?"

"Why aren't who two talking?" Weiss snapped back.

"Never mind!"

Another minute of silence went by.

"I mean, it's probably none of my business—"

"You're right, it's none of your business," Weiss snapped back again.

Ruby gave her an awkward-looking forced smile accompanied by a tiny giggle. "I'll go dry these dishes!"

Weiss didn't answer.

"Oh, hey, Weiss," Yang said, passing by the doorway. "If you don't want him anymore, I'll keep him warm for you, okay?"

Weiss shook her head before throwing her drying towel at the counter, throwing it too hard and making it into the sink. She sighed heavily before snatching it and wringing it out before hanging it on a rack to dry. She put a hand on her hip before going to her room. Ruby watched her the entire time, putting away the last bit of glassware before following after her old partner.

—

"Okay, you're up, Yang," Ren said, exchanging bows with Bedivere before stepping off of the mat.

"Good round, Ren," Bedivere said, to which the other responded with a nod.

"This should be good!" Nora said, swaying side to side as she awaited the match between Yang and Bedivere.

"All right, pretty boy," Yang said, getting into a fighting stance. "Should I take it easy on you?"

"And soil my honor as a knight?" Bedivere said, also getting into a fighting stance.

"I'm surprised you were willing to put that sword down."

"I am capable of hand-to-hand fighting, thank you very much. A knight is not defined by the weapon in his hand. As the saying goes, I am the weapon. Everything else around me is nothing more than a tool."

"We'll see who's the tool after this!"

Yang was the first to make a move, blasting off with her gauntlets before delivering a series of punches and kicks, exchanging blows with equal ferocity against Bedivere, who was capable of reading every move she had coming at him.

—

Ruby stopped short of running into Weiss's room. She knocked on the door.

"Weiss?" she said. "Are you in there?"

There was no answer.

"Weiss? Hellooooo? Weiss?"

"What?" Weiss finally answered from behind her, holding a towel in her hand.

Ruby gasped as she turned around. "Don't scare me like that!"

"What do you want, Ruby?"

"Uh, I was just gonna ask if you wanted to go join them sparring?"

Weiss didn't answer for a bit. Ruby opened the door to the room and pulled her in.

"Look, let's just go and join them and you and Bedivere can talk things out afterward, okay?"

"What do you mean? There's nothing to talk about."

" _Clearly_ there is. C'mon, I'm your best friend. I notice these things."

Weiss let out a heavy sigh.

"Weiss," Ruby said, grabbing an athletic shirt and shorts for her friend. "Put those on."

"What?"

"Put them on. Now."

"Since when did you get so pushy, huh?"

Ruby started heading out of the room, talking as she left. "I'm gonna go change into my gym clothes. You better be in yours when I get back here or I'm gonna change your clothes for you and I don't think you're gonna like that because you're shy and don't want me to see you naked!"

Another sigh found its way out of her. She looked at the gym clothes before deciding to change.

—

"Hell yeah, high five!" Yang said as she and Bedivere gave each other high fives.

"Your hand packs quite the punch," he said.

"So you've noticed, huh?"

"If I am to be honest, I noticed when we first met on the road."

"So you were checkin' me out, then, huh?"

He reddened. "Anyway! It wasn't any of my business so I decided not to say anything about it. Is it a robotic arm?"

"Yup," she said, showcasing her synthetic arm.

"Can you feel with it?" Nora said, her face instantaneously right up to her new arm, examining every single inch of it.

"Whoa, personal bubble, Nora?"

She giggled.

"And yeah, I feel everything. 100% feedback."

"Even pain?" Jaune asked.

"Yup."

"Did you ask for pain receptors?" Ren said.

"Atlas offered the option and I said yes."

"Why the heck would you do that?" Jaune asked.

"To make it more real," Bedivere said.

Yang nodded. "It's not the same without pain, you know?"

"Yes, I know."

"Hey, why are you so interested in my arm anyway? Do you think it's sexy or something?"

Jaune leaned over to Ren. "She totally went there," he whispered.

"It seems our old friend is fond of this knight," Ren whispered back.

Bedivere coughed, reddening at the same time. "There's nothing wrong with it, if that's what you're trying to ask."

"You just seem really fixated on it, that's all," Yang said.

"I suppose it's because we have that in common."

"What, you have a robot arm, too?"

He held up his right hand.

"That hand looks real, dude."

"Of course it does. Here, allow me to show you."

She watched as he took off his jacket and then his shirt. She might have been distracted by his well-built figure, expected of a knight, if it weren't for another extremely obvious physical feature. His entire right arm, from the wrist all the way up to the shoulder and extending further toward his chest and back, was covered in markings completely foreign to her. There were geometric shapes of all sorts along with unfamiliar script and other images. But these weren't tattoos. Upon closer inspection, she realized that they were a part of his flesh.

He was about to comment when he noticed Yang looking past him. He turned, spotting Weiss standing in the doorway with Ruby, both of them dressed in athletic clothing.

"Oh, Weiss, you've decided to join us," Bedivere said.

She didn't answer.

"Weiss?"

"Wait a minute," Yang said, figuring out what was going on. "Don't tell me you've never shown this to her."

"My arm?"

"Yeah."

"Well, yes, I suppose that is correct."

"What? Dude, what is wrong with you?"

At the sound of her voice, Nora began backing away, sitting behind Ren and Jaune, who also had the urge to flee from Yang.

"I'm sorry?" Bedivere said.

"Why would you show something like this to me first and not her?" she continued.

"Wait, why would that be important at all?"

"Are you being serious right now?"

"Yes, I am."

"Oh, c'mon! Were you born yesterday or something?"

"No, actually I came into being a few weeks ago. Did we not already cover this?"

She stared at him for a bit with her mouth open. "You're serious."

He nodded.

She let out a heavy sigh. "Look, you don't go keeping this kind of stuff from people who are special to you, okay?"

"Weiss _is_ special to me."

"So why the hell do I know about this before she does? I mean, dude, Ren, Nora, and Jaune found out before her! And you literally _just_ met them last night! While you've been with Weiss for, like, what, three weeks now? C'mon, do you even get how a girl feels about these things?"

"Of course I wouldn't. I'm not a girl."

"Holy shit you are dense! If she's special to you, you would tell her important stuff like this _before_ anyone else!"

"Why?"

"You just do!"

"Yang, you really don't have to do this," Weiss finally broke her silence. Ruby turned to her.

"The hell I don't!" Yang replied.

"I don't understand," Bedivere said. "It's not as if she didn't know about my arm. I told her all about it."

"But you didn't _show_ her," Yang said.

"No, I did not think I needed to."

"There you have it. You didn't think."

"Wait a moment," he said as he turned to Weiss. "This...doesn't actually bother you, does it?"

"No," she said wryly. "Of course not."

He glanced at Yang, who was glaring at him, before looking back to Weiss. There was an intense pressure in the air around him, one that threatened to crush him back into nonexistence. No, it was more like a burning sensation. Mixed with ice. And other things. Other very unpleasant things.

"Weiss," he said, looking right at her.

She slowly brought her eyes up to meet with his hazels.

"You..." he managed before swallowing hard. "You weren't thinking that...our relationship was...any more than a knight and a lady...were you?"

Weiss let out a heavy sigh, closing her eyes for a moment. "No. I guess not." She turned and walked away from them.

"Weiss! Wait up!" Ruby said as she ran after her.

Yang looked over at Bedivere and then to Weiss and then back to Bedivere.

"Dude, what the fuck is your problem?" she said.

"I'm sorry, but what have I done to deserve such foul language thrown at me like that?" Bedivere said.

"What do you mean what have you done? What the hell do you think you just did?"

"Umm, clarified things with her?"

"You are _such_ an idiot."

"But I—"

"After that _proposal_? You are still—oh, my god."

"Proposal? What are you talking about?"

"That _thing_ that you did right after you grabbed that stupid sword of yours! All that declaration of 'fealty' and crap that you did?"

"It was a vow to stay by her side and nothing more."

Her face showed disbelief. She started laughing, not because any of this was funny, but because it was simply unbelievable. "You _do_ know that she likes you, right?"

"What? But why?"

"'But why?' Are you _damaged_?"

"Of course I am damaged! I am not real! Why on earth would she be interested in a thought that materialized through magic? I am not a real person!"

The impact of her metal fist on his face sent him reeling to the side. He turned back to her in shock. Her eyes were crimson.

"That real enough for you?"

"What on earth was that for?"

" _That_ was for breaking my friend's heart!" Yang shouted in his face before stomping away.

Bedivere watched as she left, rubbing the spot on his chin where her punch had connected. Ren, Jaune, and Nora also stood up silently to leave. He stood with a hand on his hip, the other hanging free. He brought up his free arm, looking at the different markings on it.

 _But it's true. She shouldn't attach herself to me like this. She deserves so much more than me. I am nothing more than a blight upon this land, a being that was never meant to be reborn like this, an abomination._


	15. Chapter XV

CHAPTER XV

 _Geheimnisse_

Weiss sat in her room, looking out the window at nothing in particular. This place was quite peaceful, the opposite of what the rest of the world was going through. From her window, she had a breathtaking sight of the valley below. She traced the path of the river, which originated from the mountain itself.

"Weiss?" a tiny voice came from her door.

She hesitated to respond.

"It's Ruby."

She got up and went to the door.

"And Yang," the elder sister said, waving as the door slid open.

Weiss closed her eyes momentarily. She had no energy to deal with them right now, but she left the door open anyway, leaving them behind and lying down on her bed facing the window. Unsure of what to do, Ruby and Yang lingered in the hallway for a little bit before walking in and closing the door behind them.

Both sisters stood around silently for a bit before Ruby started fidgeting with her gym pants, which were too tight on her. Yang smacked her hand to get her to stop, but Ruby responded by sticking her tongue out at her before putting distance between them. Yang chased after her, pinching her on the side. Ruby opened her mouth to yell, but immediately threw both hands over to stop it from coming out.

"Are you guys just gonna scuffle around?" Weiss said. "Or did you come in here to say something to me?"

"Well," Yang said.

"We _were_ gonna try to cheer you up," Ruby said.

"But we figured nothing we could do would work."

Weiss didn't answer. She closed her eyes, trying to block everything out. She was just so tired, tired of everything. Her mattress sank from the weight of someone lying down behind her.

"Weiss?" Ruby said.

She kept her silence. Yang was next to lie down on the bed with her, sandwiching her between herself and Ruby.

"Guys," Weiss started, "I appreciate what you're trying to do. I really do. But..."

"You don't have to say anything, Yang said. "If you wanna just sit here, that's fine. We'll sit here with you, too."

"Yeah," Ruby said. "Cuz it sucks to be alone."

 _Alone._

She had been alone for so long that she nearly forgot that Ruby and Yang existed, that they may as well have been her sisters. Ruby was right. It sucked to be alone. She didn't think it would help, but just being between the two right now really did. A lot.

"I miss Blake," Weiss said. "I miss our old team."

"Me, too," Ruby said.

"I miss all of that stuff," Yang said. "Being back at Beacon, not really having to care about anything other than grades. And boys."

"Boys, ew," Ruby said, making Weiss chuckle.

"Psh, we all know you got the hots for somebody, Ruby. Or, maybe more than one somebody? I mean, there's that blacksmith guy, right?"

"We just have a lot in common, that's all. He makes such cool machines and weapons! Oooooh!"

Yang chuckled. "Yeah? What about your other new boy, hmm? You've been with Team RNJR for so long and you guys've gone through so much together now."

Ruby's face turned red. She peeked over Weiss to stick her tongue out at Yang. Neither noticed Weiss smiling as she joined in the reminiscing. It was all true. She also missed when life was simpler back at Beacon Academy. There was none of that war and death and destruction they faced now.

No, that wasn't true at all. The Grimm have been a constant threat since the dawn of time. Death and destruction was all that humankind knew. It's just that she was so sheltered from it all, only ever getting the secondary effects for the most part.

"Hey, let's go get some funnel cakes," Ruby said.

"Do they even have those here?" Yang asked.

She shrugged. "Weiss, lets go get funnel cakes!"

Weiss turned herself, facing the ceiling. She watched as Yang's and Ruby's faces slowly filled her field of view from either side. She tried ignoring them, staring straight at the ceiling, but they continued to stare at her without a word or any movement. It took an entire four minutes of this before Weiss finally broke.

" _How_ in the world can you two stare at me for so long?" she practically yelled.

"Honestly," Yang said, "I'm surprised you lasted that long. My eyes were starting to get dry."

"Oh, no!" Ruby said. "I think my eyes _did_ dry out! I can't blink! _I can't_ _blink_!"

Yang pushed her dead-center in the forehead with her palm, knocking her right off of the bed.

"Go and get dressed," Weiss said, getting up. "I'll meet you guys out in the courtyard."

"Yay!" Ruby said, springing up from the floor. "We get to go on a girls' day out!"

—

Bedivere sat in the dormitory garden, gazing out over a bluff that overlooked the city. The sound of the water rushing down into the canyon from the mountain was soothing, reminding him of his days as a knight back in Kameloth, which also had a river running through it, one that had originated from a mountain temple above the castle proper and ran through the city before plunging down into a ravine. Mistral's beauty came close to that old sight, but nothing could ever beat home, that place that he had worked so hard alongside his king and fellow knights to bring prosperity and peace to.

Still, there was something about this place that brought him comfort. Perhaps it was because it was a new world, one that had yet to be tarnished by the scourge of the wars he had witnessed. Remnant may have the Grimm along with the Great War of nearly a hundred years ago, but for Kameloth and the surrounding kingdoms and empires, it seemed that war would never end. For hundreds of years, they fought with one another, with nothing but more conflict and death on the horizon.

It wasn't until his king had taken up his place and pursued his destiny that they were, together, able to unite all of Albion under a single banner along with the Frankish Kingdom and end the war with the Persian Empire. Thus began the long era of peace.

"It's nice out here, huh?"

Bedivere turned to the side. It was Jaune.

"Weather's pretty good, eh? Not too cold, not too warm."

He silently turned back to the horizon.

"Okay, I'll just cut to the chase. What happened back there, man?"

"I got punched in the jaw," Bedivere finally said.

Jaune chuckled. "Yeah, that was quite the hit—I-I mean it looked like it hurt."

He didn't answer. It was some time before Jaune decided to take a seat with him.

"Look," he began, "I just wanna say that I kinda agreed with Yang back there. Weiss is my friend, too. Well, honestly I kinda liked her back when we went to school together, so yeah. I even had this nickname for her and everything. Snow Angel. And she still ignored me and shot me down every chance she got."

Bedivere kept his silence.

"Honestly though. Why _did_ you do that? You don't strike me as a dumb guy. You had to know what you were doing would hurt her feelings if she found out."

More silence.

"I mean, did you _intend_ to push her away? Cuz if you did, that was one hell of a job. By the way, what was with that arm? Those markings, they were in a different language. And all those figures and stuff. Don't get me wrong, I don't judge people with tattoos—"

"Swear to me," Bedivere said, abruptly standing in front of Jaune.

"Uhh, what?" Jaune said, nearly falling over.

"Swear an oath of unending fealty to me as my squire and vassal, serving me until your last breath. In return, you shall inherit my estate, my title, and my duties as a Knight of Kameloth."

"Th-This is a little sudden. I mean, you haven't even taken me on our first date yet—"

"Will you swear or not?"

"Okay! Okay! I swear to be your squire and all that!"

"Excellent. Now, about this arm."

"That's it? You wanted me to swear for that?"

"This conversation shall be between you and I alone. On pain of death."

Jaune paled. "Ohhhh, man, what the heck did I get myself into?"

"It's called a Nexus," Bedivere said.

"Uh, what's a Nexus?"

"Where I come from, a Nexus is the convergence point for magical ley lines within an area and is a source of extremely concentrated magical power, magic so dense that it ruptures the wall between the material world of mortals and the immaterial world of magic."

Jaune's mouth hung open as he listened to his explanation.

"Most Nexuses would be housed by a temple or other significant structure or place of congregation. The structure containing the Nexus was normally sealed off to outsiders, as walking onto a Nexus without the proper preparation and training would often lead to the person's death, disappearance, or...transmutation into a thing that is not native to our world. Functionally speaking, the Nexus was often a source of runic magic. Runes would typically emerge from the Nexus, inscribing themselves into whatever objects or people were nearby."

"Runes. Like the thing that appeared on your hand?"

Bedivere held out a hand, summoning a Wind Rune to the outside, which appeared on the back of his hand in a manner similar to his previous demonstration.

"So, this is the source of your power, a gateway into another world?"

"Typically, a Nexus is large enough to cover this entire garden. You would never see the markings because only those with magic flowing through them can sense the Nexus. It only shines when active, such as when generating runes or reacting to some external magical phenomenon."

"Wait, so how did _that_ Nexus fit on your arm?"

"I don't know. I once saved my king's life, in the process losing my original arm. Some time afterward, this arm appeared on my body, taking the exact likeness of my previously lost arm. How an entire Nexus compacted itself into the form of a human arm is beyond me. Most magic is beyond us mortals."

"So, with that arm, you could do all those things you were talking about?"

"Simply put, this Nexus permits me to reach directly into Avalon and draw out its power to use as I wish. On my world, a mage can only bear a single rune on either hand and one on the forehead. Those who could bear more than three runes on their bodies were extremely rare as the presence of runes on one's flesh tended to be draining to the individual. Even those powerful mages who could bear three runes at once sacrificed longevity for that power."

"But, with that thing, you can bear as many runes as you want."

Bedivere shook his head. "Not at once. I can summon them one at a time, but I cannot bear any more than three at a time."

"So, why doesn't your left hand and your forehead have any runes right now? I mean, you could do it, right?"

"Like your Dust, my magic is not unlimited. While Dust is a consumable substance, magic consumes one's soul."

"So that's why you don't have an aura. I'm guessing it's all concentrated in that arm of yours."

"Your speculation is no better than mine. I do not know how my powers are translated to your world."

"Wait a minute, wait a minute. That means you've been lying to everybody else."

He didn't answer.

"Cuz you said that Weiss summoned you. Yang was talking about how you've only existed for, like, four weeks, was it? Less than a month. But from what you're telling me, it doesn't sound like Weiss created you at all. You're a real guy, with a real name, a real history, a real personality."

"That is all true."

"Okay, ignoring the _how_ of all this, _why_ would you keep it from everybody else? Why would you keep it from Weiss?"

"She does not need to be burdened by unnecessary details about me."

"But it's okay to burden _me_ , huh?"

"Of course. You are my squire."

Jaune sighed. "I knew I shoulda read the fine print."

"Now, for your next duties as my squire, if you have no further questions."

"Just one more question. So, all that is true, then, the whole Bedivere, Knight of Kameloth, all that jazz?"

"Correct."

"Huh. So instead of summoning something from our world, she summoned someone from another world that matched the description of what she needed here."

"Perhaps."

"Interesting. Anyway, what were the other duties you had for me, uh, m-my knight, sir?"

"Normally, your duties would have involved keeping my horses clean and well-fed, polishing my armor, and ensuring that all of my business is taken care of."

Jaune's eyes opened wide.

"However, I have no horses, no business here other than Weiss, and as you can see the armor does not even exist. Therefore, your final remaining duty is to train with me."

"T-Train with you?"

"That is correct. You have your sword, do you not?"

Jaune stood up before drawing his sword and looking at it.

"Good." Bedivere drew Caliburn as well. "Let us begin."

"W-Wait! I don't think I'm ready for this!"

—

"I can't believe you found funnel cakes," Yang said, to which Ruby giggled. "You're like Nora. Your food radar is strong."

"Well, I did have some help," Ruby said, reddening a little.

"Oh, from that guy who asked Bedivere to deliver a rose to you?"

She reddened more. "Maybe."

"Who is this guy anyway?"

"He's a blacksmith."

"I figured out that much from what our resident knight said. C'mon, quit dodging."

"His name's William Hillphire. And he makes a lot of really, really cool stuff."

"Really, really cool stuff."

"Mm-hmm."

"Weiss, what do you think?"

"I think she likes him," Weiss said.

Ruby's entire head was the color of her hood now. "You guys are mean."

"Look at that, my little sister's all grown up," Yang said. "Complete with two boys after you and all that. You're such a guy-killer, Ruby."

Ruby held her plate level with Yang's head before blowing into it, sending a cloud of powdered sugar all over her face and hair. Weiss couldn't help but chuckle, but Yang immediately did the same thing to her, with Ruby as the last victim in the triangle.

"Gross," Ruby said, dusting off her hair and hood.

"Still not as epic as our last one," Yang said.

"Yeah, Glynda was fuming after that," Weiss said with a chuckle.

"I remember you were the first victim in all that, Weiss."

"I still need to get Nora back for that stupid pie."

Ruby giggled. "We could always go grab some pie and get her while she's sleeping."

"Yeah, but without Glynda to fix everything," Yang said, "we'd have to clean up ourselves. And I'm not down for that."

"Me either," Weiss said.

The sisters gave each other a glance. At least this was somewhat working to distract Weiss from that mess back at the dorms.

"Again, I appreciate what you guys are doing," Weiss said. "Also, Yang, did you really punch him in the jaw?"

"You're damn right I did," Yang said, smashing her fists together.

Weiss chuckled. "You didn't have to."

" _Someone_ had to. He was being an idiot!"

"Yeah, but I dunno if that's a good reason to assault someone," Ruby said.

"It was self-defense. Well, defense of somebody else."

"Have you figured out what you wanna do, Weiss?"

She shrugged. "I guess I had him figured all wrong. I read the signs all wrong."

"I don't blame you after that huge declaration and shit," Yang said. "Do _you_ like him, though?"

She shrugged again. "Honestly, I don't know. I've only known him for less than a month. Heck, apparently I _created_ him and I really don't know how to feel about that. And there's still so much we don't know about him."

"What if he's a Grimm?" Ruby gasped.

"Ruby," Weiss said.

"Don't be dumb," Yang finished.

"Aww, you guys are so mean!"

"If he were a Grimm, he'd be destroying everything around us already."

"And he wouldn't be so good-looking," Weiss said, instantly regretting her words and turning bright red.

Both Yang and Ruby were looking over at her with grins on their faces.

"What?" she yelled at them both.

"Maybe he doesn't know how _you_ feel," Ruby said. "It kinda sucks for both of you to be in the dark about each other, so why not be the one to step to the plate?"

"I dunno."

"Weiss," Yang started, "it's not cool for a girl to be all wishy-washy and expect the guy to know what you're feeling."

"I _don't_ expect him to know what I'm feeling! Even though he _has_ been pretty much spot on since I summoned him."

"Well, Weiss," Ruby said, "whatever you decide to do, we'll be with you all the way."

"Yup," Yang said. "You can count on us. And if I have to give him another one right in the kisser, I'll be glad to."

"That really came out wrong, Yang," Weiss said.

"Yeah, it did. But I'd still do it for you, Weiss!"

—

"Your footwork still needs some attention," Bedivere said as Jaune stooped over, panting. "And so does your swing. And your technique. And your endurance. However, you have the fighting spirit of a warrior."

"You really...think so?" Jaune panted.

"I would not lie to you just to make you feel better. What kind of master would I be if I did that? No, Jaune, the toughest swords are forged in the hottest fires. I do not intend to fashion you into a brittle knight."

"Yeah, but still. Your training is _way_ worse than Hillphire's."

"The blacksmith? You train with him?"

"Yep."

"I see. I should wish to touch steel with him one of these days."

"Oh, hey, Jaune didn't die yet!" Nora said as she and Ren joined the knight and his new squire.

"Yeah!" Jaune panted. "I'm fine! Really!"

"How did training go?" Ren asked.

"Well, you know, you and Yang had your shot against him, so I got jealous and figured I'd get the third round in! And boy, was it a bad idea!"

"Nonsense," Bedivere said, sheathing Caliburn. "You've done well. You have some room to grow, but as does everyone else. Ren, Nora, be proud of your team leader."

The two clapped.

"No, I'm no leader," Jaune said, his voice quieting down. "The real leader of the team was..."

Ren and Nora both looked down at the ground as Jaune went quiet. Jaune was still stooped forward, but no longer panting. He simply didn't want anyone else to see his face right now.

"It is never easy to lose a comrade in arms," Bedivere said. "But from what I sense out of you, Jaune, I surmise that this person was more than a mere comrade."

"You're right," Jaune said, standing up and facing him. "Pyrrha was more to me than that."

"I know how you feel."

"Do you?"

Bedivere nodded. "I, too, have lost someone special to me. She knew everything about me, my tastes and distastes, what made me smile and laugh, what made me sad and angry. It was almost as though she knew my very mind and heart. And then she left me. She sacrificed herself to keep the world from being thrown into chaos."

"Pyrrha kinda did the same thing," Jaune said. "Except she didn't really succeed."

"She set the groundwork for us," Bedivere said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "And we shall finish where she left off."

Jaune looked up into eyes of pure sincerity and courage. He gave him a nod.

"Good. Now, rest yourself. We shall continue training after you've had some time to recover."

"Ooh! Ooh!" Nora said excitedly. "Is it my turn yet?"

"If you wish," Bedivere said. "But I think we should use the dojo. This garden might not appreciate the power of your hammer."

She giggled menacingly, eager for their bout. They were all on their way to the academy's training grounds when they ran into Ruby, Yang, and Weiss at the main hall.

"Oh," Nora said. "Well, this is great. I'm gonna miss my shot at him again!"

"Bedivere," Weiss said, approaching him quickly. "Can we talk?"

He turned to her, not saying a word.

She stood face to face with him, her mouth open to speak, but no words came out. What would she even say? Was this it? Was she going to end it with him now? He had made his feelings about her clear earlier, so she should make a clean break with him right now as well, but just thinking about it made her heart want to jump out of her chest. If she went through with this now, it would mean losing him forever.

"Bedivere, I just—"

The building rumbled. There was an explosion in the distance. Everyone immediately ran to the courtyard, part of which overlooked the city. There were a number of fires down at the northern end of Mistral. Another explosion. Fires to the south.

"This doesn't look good!" Jaune said.

"We need to split up!" Bedivere said, drawing Caliburn. "I'll take the north end of the city! The rest of you decide on who's going where!"

"Wait!" Jaune said.

They all watched as Bedivere leaped up to the roof, his armor materializing around him as he jumped from building to building, descending into the city.

"Team RWBY will take the south entrance," Ruby said. "You guys ready?"

"Hell yeah," Yang said. "Although, it's gonna be RWY since Blake's not here."

Ruby giggled. "Roowy?"

"Okay, let's go," Weiss said. "Ren, Nora, Jaune, you guys take the north end with Bedivere."

"Roger!" Nora said, giving a salute before leading the way.


	16. Chapter XVI

CHAPTER XVI

 _Aus dem Schatten_

"You sure it was a good idea splitting us up like that?" Yang said to Ruby and Weiss as they ran to the south gate.

"Now is kind of a sensitive time for Weiss and Bedivere to be fighting together!" Ruby said.

Yang turned to Weiss.

"Ruby's right," she said. "I can sort things out with him after this battle."

Yang let out a sigh of frustration. "C'mon, dude, you know what they said back at Beacon about procrastination!"

"Ugh, just leave me alone!"

The trio arrived at the south entrance to Mistral. The gate had not yet been breached, but outside the city proper, the outlying town was under siege by hundreds, if not thousands of Grimm.

"Not good!" Ruby yelled, darting out of the gate to join the fray.

"Where are you going?" Yang cried out.

"The forge!"

Yang and Weiss followed after Ruby as they made their way to Hillphire's forge, which was under attack by Grimm. It was out at the very edge of the lower town and they'd be surrounded by the enemy, but Ruby couldn't just ignore what was happening.

"So, this Hillphire guy," Weiss said to Yang as they cut down several smaller Grimm together.

"Apparently some blacksmith she's infatuated with or something," Yang said. "And he's been giving her gifts and stuff, too, so yeah."

"But I thought she liked Jaune."

"Yeah, so did I. I mean, they act all close and stuff."

"Maybe they're just good friends."

"You're one to talk."

Weiss growled.

"Sorry," Yang laughed. "That was totally not what I meant to say!"

"Well, speak your mind, then!"

"Nope! Just concentrate on the fight, Weiss!"

—

Bedivere dominated the battle at the north gate of Mistral, where the concentration of Grimm was much higher than at the south. Jaune, Ren, and Nora covered him closely from behind while he fought at the very front. Although the smaller Grimm stood basically no chance against the knight, larger grim, particularly Alpha variants of the smaller ones, were more of a threat, especially in large numbers.

An Ursa Major lunged at him from the trees and he barely managed to dodge its attack before facing off with it. Caliburn's edge was extremely sharp and made short work of much of the opposition, but even the legendary sword of the Once and Future King wasn't enough to deal with this threat completely.

"I got it!" Nora yelled as she dropped in from above, nailing the Ursa Major with a direct hit from her hammer before pulling the trigger and firing a full salvo of grenades into its skull, killing it once and for all.

Bedivere gave her a quick salute before standing his ground, establishing a line of defense along with the city guard.

"Be not afraid!" the knight shouted to his fellow defenders. "Victory shall meet us today! Mistral shall not fall!"

A powerful battle cry erupted from the city guard.

—

Crescent Rose slashed through Grimm after Grimm, felling countless enemies by the time Ruby arrived at Hillphire Forge, which was crawling with monsters. She needed to get there quick. In spite of his martial prowess, Hillphire didn't stand against the Grimm, not with that paralyzing fear of his.

"Out of my way!" Ruby yelled before using her Semblance, sending her rocketing through the street toward the forge, her wake carving a path of destruction where the Grimm stood.

She landed at the front door to the forge, where two people were already present in defense of the building. Ruby knew both of them. She hadn't seen them in a long time, but she would never forget her own teammate.

"Blake!" she yelled out.

Blake turned to her, just barely managing to stay on her feet as Ruby threw herself all over her.

"Ruby!" Blake said. "What are you doing here?"

"Protecting Haven Academy! What are _you_ doing here?"

"Guys!" Sun Wukong said. "Could we take care of the more urgent business first?"

"Blake!" Yang and Weiss cried out together as they joined the others.

"Aww, yiss!" Ruby cried out. "The team is back together!"

"Can we _focus_?" Sun yelled before they engaged the incoming Grimm.

As a complete team, RWBY had no problems taking on the small fry. They were more warm-up than anything else.

"Is Hillphire okay?" Ruby asked Blake as she impaled a Beowolf with her scythe.

"He's inside, gathering up some important stuff," she said, ensnaring an Ursa by the feet before Sun and Yang finished it off together. "'I can rebuild my forge, but I can't replace this data!' That's what he said, anyway."

"That sounds about right."

The door to the forge swung open and Hillphire emerged with another Faunus, one with lion ears.

"Oh, thank goodness," Hillphire said. "You've all arrived."

"Didn't I say you could count on us if you found yourself surrounded by Grimm?" Ruby said with a smile.

"Yes, and thanks. All of you."

"Who's _this_ kitty?" Yang said, approaching the group.

"Excuse me," the new face said, "but I am lion Faunus, not a kitty."

"What's wrong with kitties?" Blake said.

"Nothing! I just don't want to be mistaken for a mere housecat."

Blake started growling before turning to Sun. "I told you it would be a bad idea to bring her along!"

"Oh, c'mon!" Sun said. "You know why we had to get Hollie out of there!"

"I do! But, ugh!"

"I don't think now is the time for this," Weiss said, facing another horde of Grimm about to descend upon them.

"Okay, we're done here," Yang said. "Let's get back to the gate!"

The group broke into a mad dash back to the main defensive line at the south gate with Ruby and Hollie, their new Faunus friend, staying close to Hillphire, who was carrying a heavy duty briefcase of his most precious data. Both girls knew of Hillphire's extreme aversion to the Grimm and made it a point to ensure his safety.

"Thank you so much, Ruby," Hillphire said. "I feel ashamed for having to rely on everyone like this, especially considering I'm not a bad swordsman myself."

"That's what we're here for, right?" Ruby said with a smile, watching as Hollie's guitar transformed into an axe, the blades emerging from the base of the instrument. She hacked her way through three Beowolf Grimm before rejoining the circle. "Is that a guitar axe?" she asked their new companion.

"Yup," Hollie said. "It's also a gun."

"Oooh! I wanna see!"

Hollie pressed a switch close to the base. The guitar quickly retracted its axe head before morphing into an enormous rifle three times the original length of the guitar. She took aim at a far-off Boarbatusk Grimm about to attack Yang and pulled the trigger. The blast was deafening to say the least, but the impact of the bullet itself was what caught Ruby's attention.

"You took out that thing with one shot!" Ruby said.

"20x102mm ammunition infused with earth Dust does wonders," Hollie said, holding her rifle upright. "If you want upgrades, you can ask this guy here." She gestured to Hillphire.

The blacksmith smiled sheepishly.

"You gave my scythe an upgrade already, but it doesn't do _anything_ close to that!"

"You wanted to keep it as original as possible!" Hillphire said.

Ruby frowned at him.

"Oh, all right, when this is over, let's work on your scythe next."

"Yay!" she said as she jumped up and down.

Meanwhile, at the front of the pack, Yang, Blake, Sun, and Weiss were having trouble with the enormous amounts of Grimm blocking their way toward the main defense line.

"What the hell is going on here?" Yang said. "Why are there so many of them?"

"We might have an idea on that," Blake said. "The White Fang is getting close to making their move."

"Wait, what?" Weiss said.

"We heard that Adam assassinated Sienna Khan and took her place," Sun said. "So, things are starting to ramp up on that end."

"And Haven Academy really is their target?"

"We're pretty sure of it," Blake said. "That's why we came back here, to make sure the place is ready for an attack. This Grimm invasion is probably their way of testing out the defenses."

"But how did they get so many to come here?"

"Probably by manually luring them. All it takes is one sighting and people panicking and then pretty soon you have hundreds of them in one spot."

"But this isn't hundreds," Yang said, smashing through an Alpha Creep's jaw. "This is more like thousands."

"They've probably been at this for a while," Hillphire said as he stood in the middle of a circle formed by the others. "It's not easy, but not impossible to intentionally lure Grimm around the countryside. And with global communications down, it's easy for them to fly under the radar. Literally."

They broke into another scuffle with incoming Grimm. Hollie stayed with Hillphire while Ruby joined the rest of her team and Sun.

"I really do appreciate you staying with me like this," Hillphire said.

"It's no problem," Hollie said to him.

"I really wish I could be less useless on the battlefield. It's just that, whenever I see one of these things, I freeze up. I can take on Huntsmen and Huntresses all the time, but against even a Creep I am utterly useless."

Hollie turned to him. "This should help you somewhat."

He gazed at her as she began singing to him. It was a soft melody, a ballad almost. He wouldn't have expected anything like this on the battlefield, but oddly enough it was soothing. As her words reached his ears, he found himself calming down significantly. It wasn't enough to give him the courage necessary to face the Grimm head-on, but her voice was able to eliminate the total paralysis he often experienced when faced with this many Grimm.

"How did you do that?" he asked.

"It's a gift of mine," Hollie said with a smile.

What no one else had realized was that her song managed to reach the others as well, boosting their courage and stamina without them even noticing. Thanks to the morale boost, the group was able to punch through the thick Grimm formations. The city's defensive line was within sight.

"We're almost there!" Yang said. "One last push!"

"I can see Uncle Qrow!" Ruby said excitedly before dashing forward and slashing through four Beowolves at the same time.

Weiss took out an Ursa by herself when a giant King Taijitu emerged from a nearby building, flinging her into the sky. The impact knocked the wind out of her, shattering her aura.

"Weiss!" Blake yelled, running to her aid. In spite of her speed, she wasn't quick enough to save her from the Alpha Beowolf's swipe.

—

Bedivere was mid-swing when an intensely sharp pain tore through the left side of his torso. He fell to a knee, leaning against Caliburn before bringing up an arm to block against an Ursa's attack. The strike knocked him over to the side like a rag doll and he struggled to get up, but fell back to the dirt.

"Bedivere!" Jaune yelled before running to him. "What happened?" He looked down at blood seeping from between his armor's segments. "Holy crap, you're bleeding!"

"It's nothing," Bedivere managed as he struggled back to his feet. "Nothing a Knight of Kameloth cannot handle."

Jaune didn't understand. His armor was completely intact. What in the world was happening?

"Come," Bedivere said, barely staying standing. "We must continue the fight!"

"You're not in any condition to keep going!"

"Nonsense!"

"Jeez, quit being so stubborn!"

"What's going on?" Nora asked as she and Ren joined them. She gasped as she spotted the red on his armor. "Wait, are you bleeding?"

"It's nothing," Bedivere said before rushing back into battle alongside the rest of the city's defenders.

"How did he get injured?" Ren asked Jaune, who shrugged.

"His armor's not punctured at all," he said.

"I noticed that."

"Never mind!" Nora said. "C'mon! We have to help him!"

They fought together as a team, holding back the endless Grimm for some time before Bedivere let out another yell, dropping Caliburn onto the ground and falling to his side. Blood was now seeping from between his armor plates at the right shoulder. Ren just barely managed to save him from a giant Deathstalker, using his aura to block its stinger before kicking it away and activating his Semblance, masking himself and Bedivere from the surrounding Grimm and giving him the chance to drag his teammate to safety.

Bedivere was panting as Ren pulled him behind the main defensive line. Just like before, his armor was fully intact.

"Okay, what happened?" Ren asked him.

Bedivere had his eyes closed. "Caliburn," he muttered.

"Huh?"

"Caliburn! Where is it?"

"Right here!" Jaune said, joining them. "I've got your sword. Don't worry."

"Good." He tried to get up, but the pain was unbearable at this point. Not only was his side bleeding, his sword arm was useless now. "Damn it," he said. "N-Nora, where is she?"

"Still out there kicking butt," Ren said.

"Tell the others...to back off...and maintain a safe distance from her."

"What are you planning?"

"Her...Semblance..." He closed his eyes, conserving his strength.

Jaune looked down at his right hand, which began to emit light from between the armor segments. "Oh, crap! Everybody, back away from Nora! Give her some room!"

Nora glanced over at them, quickly realizing what they were planning. She grinned, slowly backing away from the Grimm in an effort to lure as many of them as close to her as possible.

"Bedivere!" she cried out. "I'm ready when you are!"

He fought the pain in his shoulder as he held up his right arm, quietly whispering the name of the Wind Rune, which manifested on the back of his hand, glowing with a pale green light.

" _Gewitter_!" he cried out as he cast the most powerful lightning spell he could muster.

A black cloud formed over Nora and the Grimm before sending bolts of lightning straight down into her body, which absorbed all of that electrical energy, converting it directly into power for her muscles. She seemed to glow with a quiet strength for a while before she looked up at the Grimm in front of her. The grin would not leave her face.

Just as they all lunged for her, she leaped into the air before bringing Magnhild down with incredible force. The impact of her hammer with the earth sent a shockwave in all directions, pulverizing the nearest Grimm and killing everything within a fifty-foot circle around her. Everything else outside of the instant kill zone was blasted with enough force to kill some of them and severely injure the rest. With a single strike, she had terminated a little over a hundred Grimm.

Her allies were not spared from the blast wave, though they were far enough to be safe from complete destruction. Ren and Jaune just barely managed to keep their fallen teammate from flying away, having dug their weapons into the ground to use as makeshift anchors. The two boys looked out to Nora, whose silhouette was barely visible through the thick dust floating in the air.

"You guys okay?" she chuckled as she came upon them.

"Dude," Jaune said. "That was awesome."

"You bet it was! Bedivere, we gotta do that again!" She looked down at him. He wasn't responding. "Bedivere?"

"Hey," Jaune said, trying to shake him awake.

"He's lost too much blood," Ren said. "C'mon, help me get him to a stretcher."

—

"Whew," Sun said, stooping over when the battle finally ended. "That was intense!"

"I really do suggest moving your forge closer to the city's defenses," Weiss said to Hillphire.

"That would not be a good idea at all," he said.

"Why not?"

"Have you noticed the two buildings nearest to my forge?"

"The ones that were destroyed by the Grimm?"

"It wasn't the Grimm that did that."

"Who did it, then?" Yang asked.

"He did," Blake said.

Hollie chuckled. "Wait, what?"

"I was there when he tested some, uh, stuff, and he had a little accident. The closest building was completely demolished while the one beyond that was too damaged to be safe to use. Good thing nobody was in either of them when it happened."

"Speaking of that," Ruby said, "I hope your forge didn't get destroyed by all the Grimm just now."

"Oh, there's no need to worry," Hillphire said. "I activated all of my automated defenses just as we vacated the area."

"Not surprised you thought that far ahead," Sun said. "Heck, you have a lot of stuff planned out in advance."

Hillphire sighed. "It happens when you're so terrified of the Grimm that you take all steps necessary to keep from having to deal with them yourself."

"Fear's a good motivator," Yang said. "Oh, guess who I see."

Ruby gasped before darting away from the group. "Uncle Qrow!" she yelled before clinging to his arm.

"This again, huh?" Qrow chuckled.

"Hi!"

"I was wonderin' who the hell that was rushing into the middle of all that Grimm. I guess I shoulda known."

"Uncle Qrow," Yang said, bumping fists with him.

"Ow, that hurt," he said, flapping his hand. "Watch what you hit with that new hand of yours, kiddo!"

She chuckled. "It's not my fault you're developing arthritis, old man."

He gave her dry look before turning to Hillphire. "Oh, hey, blacksmith."

"Mister Branwen," Hillphire greeted back. "Were you able to procure that thing we had discussed?"

"Yup. Right back there." He pointed with his thumb behind him.

"Oooh!" Ruby said excitedly before finally falling off of Qrow's arm. "What thing? What thing?"

"Nothing," Qrow chuckled.

"You were able to retrieve all of it, yes?" Hillphire said.

"Mm-hmm. Every scrap."

"Good. Depending on whether or not my theories are correct, we may need every single original piece of metal and wiring."

"Wait a minute, is that Oscar?" Ruby said. "You took him on the job with you?"

"And he did pretty good. I mean, I guess that's not all that surprising since, well, you know, Oz is inside him and all that. Man, that still sounds weird no matter how you say it."

"Oscar!" Ruby yelled as she dashed over to him.

"All right, kids," Qrow said to the others. "Let's get to Haven and catch up on things." He noticed a new face in the crowd, a girl with lion ears just barely visible through her thick, auburn hair. _A Faunus girl, huh?_ he thought before shrugging and leading the way up the main road toward the academy.

"You know," Blake said amid the commotion, turning to Weiss. "I'm really surprised you didn't get injured back there. Even with your aura broken for that little bit."

"Me, too," Weiss said.

"You dodged it pretty good, then, huh?" Yang said.

"I guess. I could swear both of them hit me, though."

"But you're not even bleeding. You must've dodged just at the right time."

It was possible. It wouldn't be the first time Weiss managed to evade an otherwise lethal attack.

The group passed by Jaune, Ren, and Nora on their way up to Haven Academy. Yang was the first to run up to them.

"Uh, aren't you guys down a knight?" she said, looking at the object in Jaune's hand. "What are you doing with that?"

"Why do you have Caliburn?" Weiss asked him.

None of the three answered.

"Where is he?" Weiss nearly yelled.

Ren turned his head toward a stretcher carrying a motionless Bedivere to a triage tent. Without another word, she was in a sprint to him. The medics set him down on a makeshift bed to be worked on by the doctors. There was blood all over his armor.

All of a sudden, everything went flying out the window. Before the Grimm invasion, she was ready to make things clear between them and break everything off, but seeing him like this, motionless, with so much blood on him brought her right back to that day at the castle when she had come upon such a gruesome sight, her knight covered in gashes, his skin missing at places, and chunks of flesh torn from his body. What had happened that day? And what was happening now?

It wasn't until the doctors had removed his armor that she realized his wounds were exactly where she should have been wounded.

"Weiss?" Ruby said as she, Yang, and Blake joined her. "Is he okay?"

"He's still breathing," Yang said. "But all that blood. Damn, it's just like back at the castle."

"Castle?"

"Right, we never told you guys that story. Weiss, c'mon, let's give the doctors some room to do their work."

She didn't budge.

Yang looked at the other two, who left to join the rest of the group. "I'll be right outside. Take your time, all right?" She put a hand on Weiss's shoulder before leaving.


	17. Chapter XVII

CHAPTER XVII

 _Der Größte Opferung_

"Okay, so I'm thinking it's time for some catch-up," Qrow began as the entire group gathered together at the academy's dorm. "Shit, I'm not good at any of this shit. Ah, anyway, so, according to what Blake and Sun have found out, the White Fang are gonna make their move soon, probably to take down Haven Academy and, very likely, Mistral itself. Adam has killed the old leader and taken her place, so yeah.

"We know their goal has been to strike back at humans for the longest time. Now, the thing is, Blake and Sun have been working around the edges of the White Fang, cuz, surprise, surprise, not everybody in the White Fang think like Adam does. Some didn't even agree with Sienna. Hell, there are plenty of Faunus out there who don't agree with the White Fang altogether."

"Not in its current form," Blake said. "The White Fang once existed to advance the treatment of the Faunus, but under Sienna and now under Adam it's gone outright militant. The majority of the Faunus just want to live their lives, not to bring about a human genocide."

"And that's why we've been recruiting as many as possible," Sun said as he unveiled the old banner of the White Fang. "We still don't match Adam's faction, not by a long shot. Like Blake said, most Faunus just wanna live their lives, but we're gettin' there."

"Once people realize that all Adam is gonna do is bring all-out war between humans and Faunus, we might be able to get enough to oppose Adam completely."

"But surely there are many who would rather form a united front against humans," Ren said. "After all, it's humans who have been persecuting the Faunus for a long time. The only real exception to this rule is Vacuo."

"Yes, that has been a problem," Blake said. "But Adam poses a genuine threat, probably more of a threat to the Faunus than to humans. And fortunately, we've been able to get a significant portion of the Faunus population to see this."

"But not enough."

She shook her head. "The ill treatment of the Faunus isn't something so easily forgotten, especially by those who suffered through them firsthand."

"That's the reason we took Hollie with us," Sun said.

"Yeah, I was gonna ask about that," Yang said, turning to the new face. "So, what's the deal with you?"

"Adam's cronies were after me when Blake and Sun showed up," Hollie began. "It was a good thing they did, too, because I might be good, but I'm not _that_ good."

"What's so special about you, though? I mean, aside from that super sick ass guitar transforming into an axe and then a huge ass gun."

Hearing her sister recall it made Ruby squeak in excitement.

"I only got this weapon today from the forge. And that's when the Grimm started attacking. Adam's after me probably for my Semblance."

"Which is?"

"Singing. I can sing and lift up my allies' spirits. I can also do the opposite to the enemy."

"Holy cow," Jaune said. "So, like, you could sing right now and give us all a big morale boost?"

She nodded. "That's my Semblance. It's also why I've been hiding from Atlas."

"Why Atlas?" Nora asked.

"Because they're trying to recruit me and use my powers. Same as Adam, different sides."

"I'm guessing Salem might be after you, too, then," Oscar finally spoke up. "I mean, uh, that's what Ozpin is saying."

"Kid," Qrow began, "what did I tell you about that?"

"Oh, uh, right. Yeah, that's it. Salem should be after you, too, unless she doesn't view you as that much of a threat. Or if your Semblance isn't of much use to her."

"Wait, did you just say _Ozpin_?" Yang said.

"Umm, yeah," Oscar said.

"What? Where?"

"Oh, right, you guys haven't been here," Jaune said. "So, apparently, Professor Ozpin died and he's now inside Oscar's body. Or head. Right? How does that work again?"

"It's similar to how the Maidens transfer souls between one vessel and another," Oscar said. "Only in this case, we're male."

"Professor Ozpin died, huh?" Blake said.

"Well, yes and no. I'm him now. And he's me."

"Moving on," Qrow said with a sigh. "We have two priorities in front of us right now. One is the Spring Maiden, who we have located with Raven's tribe."

Yang looked up at him.

"She's apparently been with them for some time now, probably very much used to her powers and most likely none of us would stand a chance against her. That's not even considering Raven, who's a powerful warrior as it is. The other priority is this issue with the White Fang."

"Well, if you're putting this up to a vote," Sun began, "you know how the three Faunus here are voting."

"Honestly," Ruby said, "and I know we agreed on going after the Spring Maiden ASAP, but if there's an imminent attack on Mistral, shouldn't we, you know, stay here?"

"I agree with Ruby," Jaune said.

"As do I," Hillphire said.

"Did you hear that?" Nora whispered to Ren. "The two of them agree with Ruby."

Ren chuckled silently.

"Damn it, I had a feeling this was gonna happen," Qrow said. "We shoulda gone after her when we still had the chance."

"We can go find her any time after we're finished defending the city," Yang said. "Our priority is to keep the people safe."

Ruby looked over at her sister. For her entire life, Yang was always obsessed with chasing her mother. But right now, she was putting that on the back burner. What changed?

"I have to agree with Ruby and Yang myself," Oscar said. "As important as..." He looked over to the side. "Shut up. No, I know how important...that's not the point. No, I didn't mean to tell you to shut...yeah, but these people are _literally_ in danger right now." He sighed. "Look, if you can't trust me to...yeah. Yeah, I know." He let out another sigh before turning to the rest of the group, who were intently watching his internal dialogue with the unseen Ozpin.

"What's up?" Sun asked him.

"It's a bad idea for us to ignore the Spring Maiden. She can disappear at any moment. We should go after her while we know where she is. The problem is that this city is also important to defend. After all, the Relic is here."

"I guess we're splitting up?" Hollie suggested.

"That's not gonna be a good idea," Qrow said. "We need all the firepower we have available to us if we're gonna do either of these things."

"Why don't we go to Ironwood for help?" Jaune asked.

"Are you kidding? That stiff bastard ain't gonna go through with it. They don't trust anybody besides themselves, and plus, _I_ don't trust them, not after Beacon. If they can fix their shit, then yeah, but while their robots can be hijacked like child's play, screw that."

"Plus," Hillphire began, "I've heard that Atlas has closed off its borders. Apparently, they've even enacted a Dust embargo. All of my orders for Dust from the Schnee Dust Company have been indefinitely suspended."

"Mistral itself also sees its own defense as a priority over finding the Spring Maiden," Ren said. "And we can't really count on Vale. They've got their hands full."

"I guess it can't really be helped," Nora said. "I mean, that was a lot of crap that happened because of the broadcast. People all over the planet saw what happened and, well, Grimm happened right after."

"Still," Oscar said. "If only people knew the importance of the Maidens. Salem has one under her control now. We need to get one on our side, too. Or at least keep her from suffering the same fate as Fall."

Ruby noticed Jaune look at the ground almost as soon as the word "Fall" left Oscar's mouth. She wanted to say something to him. It was true that she herself had lost a friend on that day, but she was more than just a friend to Jaune. But, then again, what could she say to him? She sure as heck couldn't even hope to replace her. Team JNPR was a banner that would never fly again.

"Well, it's been a long day," Qrow said. "You kids should get some rest."

Yang stood up, wasting no time on her way to the dorm rooms.

—

Weiss had spent the entire afternoon by Bedivere's bed. The sun was already setting outside and she went to turn on the lights before returning to her chair. The doctors had managed to stop the bleeding and save his life, but he hadn't regained consciousness in the time since. That was hours ago. She looked at his right hand, that hand with which he was capable of performing miracles. If only she could perform a miracle right now.

She took his hand in hers, intertwining her fingers with his. Another tear fell from her eye.

 _I guess I'm not done crying just yet_ , she thought, sniffling before wiping another tear away with her free hand.

There was a knock at the door.

"Com—" she cleared her throat. "Come in."

The door slid open and Yang walked in, closing it behind her.

"Hey, Yang. So, what did you guys discuss?"

"I think it can wait," Yang said, grabbing another chair and flipping it around before taking a seat, leaning her head against the backrest. "Still hasn't woken up?"

She shook her head.

"He'll be fine. I'm sure of it. He's survived worse."

Both girls thought about what happened at the castle. They remembered the details clearly, all of the blood and missing bits of his body, the utter fear with which he initially reacted to Weiss's face, the trembling, panic, and terror in his eyes. The unbreakable knight had been broken. And now, the invincible knight they had come to know was motionless, his hand cold to Weiss's touch.

"Weiss," Yang said quietly. "You...you don't have to put on this brave face."

She didn't answer, keeping her eyes on Bedivere.

"I know you probably never had the chance to do this, so you probably aren't used to the whole thing, but if you need to, let it all out. Lay it on me. That's what I'm here for, Weiss."

Weiss turned to her friend. "Yang," she said, taking her hand. "Thank you. But I really don't have anything to say." _That was a lie._

"Okay. Well, I'll stay here with him in case you need to use the bathroom or something."

Weiss turned back to the bed, watching as his chest rose and fell. The sun had just dipped below the horizon when she stood up from her chair.

"I'm gonna use the restroom," she said quietly.

"I'll be right here," Yang said, touching her hand as she walked by.

Weiss found herself wandering aimlessly through the halls of the dorms. She wasn't headed to the bathroom at all. No, she just needed to get out of that room. To the school quad. No, to the garden. It didn't matter where she went. She just needed to—

And then it hit her. Her legs gave out beneath her and she fell to the ground. Tears clouded her vision as she began wailing. She tried covering her mouth to keep the world from hearing, but it was no good. She fell to her side, pulling herself into a ball, trying to retreat from everything. Nothing could possibly bring her comfort right now. It wasn't like anything could. Those wounds on his body matched the wounds that should have killed her. And now they were killing him.

 _She_ had killed him.

The one thing in this world that meant more than anything else to her.

And she had killed him.

She would never see his reassuring eyes again.

Never hear his encouraging voice again.

Never feel his strong touch again.

He was out of her reach forever.

—

Ruby leaned against the thin wall that separated her from the garden. She hid her face beneath her hood as she joined her best friend in crying. She hardly knew Bedivere, but she had known Weiss for a long time now and seeing her friend in this state made her heart break for her. If only there were something she could do for her. But there really wasn't.

She got up, wiping away tears before making her way to Weiss, who was lying on her side in the garden, still wailing uncontrollably. Without a word, Ruby lay in front of her, wrapping both arms around her best friend. Not once did Weiss's crying die down. But it was fine. Ruby would stay with her and cry with her forever if she had to. Because she did not deserve to be alone, not now, not ever.


	18. Chapter XVIII

CHAPTER XVIII

 _Wenn die Sonne Aufgeht_

It had been several days since Bedivere had lost consciousness. His body had already fully healed, yet he was still in a coma. In the meantime, the teams continued to stay in shape, readying themselves for the imminent White Fang attack on the city. Blake, Sun, and Hollie spent most of their time on and off the field, trying to recruit as many Faunus as possible while the rest coordinated with the city's thinly spread defenses.

The last invasion of Grimm had revealed a multitude of weaknesses in Mistral's defensive capabilities and strategies. The only thing that kept the city from falling completely was Bedivere's dominance at the north gate, where the Grimm were heavily concentrated, and Team RWBY's defense of the south entrance. Although Mistral's topography provided natural barriers against attack, these two points were the most vulnerable, and with most of the defenders focusing on these areas, flying Grimm and others capable of scaling sheer mountain cliffs had managed to get into the city, where there were nearly zero defenders.

And since every other available Huntsman was out on the field, the only ones who would be able to defend Mistral against an incoming White Fang attack—which would likely be much worse than the Grimm attack—were Team RWBY, the remainder of Team RNJR, Qrow, Oscar, and Hollie.

"I'd count you in," Qrow said to Hillphire, "but, well..."

"I wouldn't count him out just yet," Jaune said. "I mean, have you _seen_ the stuff he's got back at his shop?"

"I was more impressed by the automated defenses," Ren said. "When we went back with him to his forge, mostly everything was intact. Only two turrets had been destroyed. The small robots and the rest of the turrets were still functional."

"I was actually surprised myself," Hillphire said. "I hadn't prepared my forge to withstand an all-out assault like what we faced that day, but perhaps it was more effective than I previously thought."

"Could you get something like that ready for the city?" Oscar asked.

"It took me months to set up my shop. To the scale of the city, I don't think it can be done in mere days."

"The Council has already approved it," Qrow said. "I gave them all the info they needed to know about you and you're hired. You've also got all of the city's engineers and mechanics at your disposal."

"I, uh, I don't know what to say."

"You could probably do with a 'thank you'," Jaune said.

"Well, yes, of course. Thank you, Mister Branwen."

"What the hell did I already tell you about this 'Mister Branwen' shit?" Qrow said. "Jeez, you make me sound old."

"Oh, right, sorry, Qrow."

"Okay, we've had enough rest," Ren said. "I think we should get back to the training grounds before we all start getting flabby."

"Wanna challenge Team RWBY?" Nora asked the others with a grin.

"Three against four?" Jaune said. "Listen, I'm all about this whole overconfidence thing, but I also don't enjoy pain."

"Funny, I thought you just got hit because it was fun."

"Nora."

"Hmm?"

"You're not funny."

She laughed.

"I wouldn't mind joining you," Hillphire said.

"Count me in as a ringer if you need," Hollie said.

"Well, they do have Sun," Ren said. "It could be five on five."

"So," Nora began, "Team RWBY plus Sun and Team...uh, JNRH?"

"Are we really gonna do this 'Junior' thing again?" Jaune said.

"With a silent H at the end."

"Nora," Ren said.

"Ren?"

"Just, no."

"Well, c'mon! What else are we gonna be called?"

"It'll have to be Hollie, though," Hillphire said. "As much as I would love to be a permanent part of the team, I simply cannot see myself in battle against Grimm. The other issue is..." He turned to Oscar. "What are we going to do with him?"

"Huh?" Oscar said. "M-Me?"

"Yeah," Nora said. "You might be Professor Ozpin, but you also gotta get up to speed with the whole fighting thing, you know."

"Well, I guess so."

Qrow began laughing. "This'll be fun."

—

Blake and Yang dashed forward together to attack Ruby and Weiss head-on.

"Ready, Ruby?" Weiss said, preparing to project her glyphs.

"Ready!" Ruby said.

"Okay, go!"

The first glyph hurled Ruby forward like a living cannonball and she engaged Blake in a high speed blade battle. Yang went straight to Weiss, who attacked with a variety of glyph-facilitated Dust attacks, all of which Yang shrugged off like they were nothing. Her eyes were already crimson in color when she came within range, her Semblance fully active and fists ready for action.

Weiss projected a glyph to slow Yang down before vaulting off of another glyph, dodging Yang's powerful attack before leaping off another glyph to counter. Yang dodged the strike from Myrtenaster before going for a flurry of punches, which Weiss blocked, dodged, and deflected with her weapon.

Eventually, the four combatants came back together in the middle of the room and both pairs coordinated with their partners to try and gain the upper hand. Everything was going smoothly for a while until Weiss managed another misplaced glyph, which launched Ruby directly into the floor instead of at Yang.

"Holy shit!" Yang said.

"Ruby!" Weiss said, running to her companion.

"Are you okay?" Blake said.

"Oww," Ruby whimpered, rubbing her head. "That was _not_ what I was expecting."

"That's twice in a row now," Sun said, trying to hold back his chuckle, which managed to slip out.

"Don't you mean, T'Weiss?" Yang said with a grin. "Get it? Twice? T'Weiss? Cuz her name is—"

"Yes, Yang," Blake said loudly. "We get it. We do."

"I thought it was funny," Sun said with a straight face before giving her a high five.

"Ruby, I'm so sorry," Weiss said as she helped her out of the hole her body had made in the hardwood.

"It's okay, Weiss," Ruby said, dusting herself off. "I'll just get you back by sneezing on you again."

Weiss chuckled.

"I think it's time for a break," Sun said. "We've all gone through several rounds now. I _was_ gonna say let's switch up teams again so Blake and I can get a shot against the sisters, but..."

"Yeah, I'm really dizzy right now," Ruby said.

"And I dunno if I wanna partner up with Weiss," Yang said.

Weiss tried to play it off, but failed.

"Are you guys ready for Team RWBY and Sun against the all-new Team JNRH with two silent Hs at the end?" Nora said as she walked into the training grounds with the others.

"Team RWBY is officially incapacitated," Sun said, to which the four girls sighed.

"What happened?" Jaune asked.

"Me happened," Ruby said, pointing at the new hole in the hardwood floor.

"Whoa," Qrow said. "I told you not to eat all those tacos earlier."

"Uncle Qrow!" Ruby cried. "That's not funny!"

He chuckled. "Did you get hurt?"

"Apparently not," Yang chuckled, too, before leaving the group. "I'm gonna go take a break for a little while. Be back later!" She eyed Weiss, who didn't notice her. Yang cleared her throat until the latter noticed.

"Oh, yeah, break," Weiss said. "Ruby, sorry again."

"Don't worry about it," Ruby said before giving her a hug. "Go and see him."

Weiss nodded before following Yang out of the room.

"He's that important to her, huh?" Blake said as they made room for the next group to practice.

"Yup," Ruby said, taking a seat at the benches with Blake and Sun. "Apparently she summoned him."

"Summoned?" Sun said.

"You know about her Semblance, right?"

"That's right," Blake said, "she has the power to summon fallen enemies."

"Yeah. But this one time she did it, he popped up instead of her actual summon. And he appeared just in time to save her life."

"So a genuine knight in shining armor," Sun said. "Here's hoping he pulls through."

"I've never seen Weiss so distracted before, though," Blake said. "I mean, honestly I never thought she'd be so preoccupied over another person."

"I guess it goes to show how much he means to her."

She turned to Sun, who was smiling as he watched the other team prepare to train. She, too, found herself smiling.

"Aww!" Ruby said, looking at her two companions. "You two are sooooo cute!"

Blake growled at her as she and Sun both reddened.

—

Weiss sat down beside the bed just as she did every night, watching Bedivere sleep. After her breakdown on the first day, she had refused to leave his side, staying by him for an entire forty-eight hour period until Yang finally convinced her to trade places from time to time. Weiss had wanted to be the first thing he saw when he woke up again, but the others were right about needing to train to keep in tip top shape for the oncoming attack. Eventually, she had acquiesced and joined them, but it was impossible to focus with her mind on him the whole time.

"Are you sure you're okay staying here?" Weiss said to Yang, who was resting her head on a nearby desk.

"Yup," she yawned. "The snoring has gotten worse in the last few days."

Weiss chuckled. "Are they competing with each other?"

"More like harmonizing. Ruby and Snora with their own little concert every night. I don't get how Blake and Hollie able to sleep through that, especially since the two of them hear in surround sound."

Weiss began laughing. It wasn't the first time Yang had made that joke, but it was always too funny every time it came up. "Don't let either of them hear you say that."

Yang laughed, too. "I know you didn't mean it that way, but I'm proud of you, Weiss."

"It's the natural ones that are the best."

Eventually it came time for bed and Weiss walked over to the mat that she had set up a while ago. She was going to lay down when she turned back to Bedivere. She thought about it for a bit before climbing into the bed, facing him.

"No funny business, Weiss," Yang said without lifting up her head from the desk.

Weiss closed her eyes, allowing Bedivere's warmth and gentle breathing lull her to sleep. It would be past midnight when the room's stillness would be disturbed.

Bedivere slowly opened his eyes, feeling a warm body beside him. It was Weiss. She was fast asleep, her mouth slightly open, her breath tickling the hairs on his arm. He watched her sleep for the next few minutes until Yang decided to finally interrupt him.

"Holy shit," she said, standing up from her chair to wake up Weiss.

"No, please," he said. "Don't wake her."

"What're you talking about? Of course I'm gonna wake her up!"

"Shh. I do not wish to disturb her sleep."

"Oh, great, you just wake up from a coma and you're already in full-on Knight Mode."

"Yang, please, keep your voice down."

She sighed before falling back into her chair. "You really plan on keeping her in the dark about all these things, aren't you?"

"That is not my intention. I only wish for her to have a good night's rest. We will meet in the morning. I shall be the first to greet her."

"Man, I will never understand how that brain of yours works."

"You said I'd been in a coma?"

She nodded. "Eight whole days. Comin' up on nine. You know, she's been here all that time, too. Wanted to be the first thing you saw when you woke up. Day one, she never left your side. Day two, same thing. I had to beg her to trade places with me every now and then just so she'd have time to eat and keep up her friggin' hygiene."

"She's been here all that time?"

"Are you surprised?"

"I suppose not."

"Funny thing is, your wounds completely healed up in twenty-four hours. So, I'm guessin' it wasn't a physical injury that was keeping you under."

He didn't respond.

"Bedivere, what did you see at that castle?"

He looked over to her.

"You're the only one who hasn't talked about it. Weiss saw her family. She was powerless to save them. I saw Ruby and my mom. My obsession over chasing after my mom killed Ruby. But you, when we got to you, you were...how do I say it? You should've been dead."

He looked up at the ceiling.

"I mean, I've never seen that much blood come from one man. And the way you reacted to Weiss when she got to you, it's like you saw a ghost, or a monster. Was that your illusion in that castle?"

"You think it was all an illusion?"

"It had to be. When Weiss got to me, my sister and mom had disappeared."

"I see."

"Okay, now there's definitely something you know that you're not sharing with anybody. You know, I had a feeling you weren't being completely honest about your origins. It turns out you're a real person, not an artificial summon created by Weiss."

He turned to her.

"No, Jaune didn't blab it to me. He's taking that oath pretty seriously. I put two and two together a while back. You said that the sword downloaded information into your brain. Well, I figured that was bullshit from the way you looked at it like you'd seen it before. And the fact that you seem to treat the sword with aversion sometimes, like you're not worthy of it or something."

He flinched.

"Yup. I knew I was right. So, then, what did you see at the castle? And what was it that's kept you under for the last eight days?"

"It's nothing you'd ever understand."

"Try me, Bedivere."

He sighed. "There's nothing to tell. No man is perfect. The castle confronted us with our darkest guilt and I'd rather not talk about mine."

She leaned back in her chair. "Well, I guess I can respect your space, then."

"Thank you."

"Just, try to be more sensitive about Weiss's feelings. I'm only saying that because you haven't been there this past week. You don't know what she's been through. And I just don't want my friend to get hurt anymore. You seem to enjoy seeing her cry—"

"I do _not_ enjoy seeing her cry," he snapped.

"Well, just be careful from now on. I dunno how much you know her, having been brought here by her summoning, but she puts on a brave face all the time, and yet—"

"And yet she's actually being torn up inside. I know."

"You know? And you still did these things? And wait, what do you mean _you know_? But before that, why the hell did her injuries transfer over to you?"

He didn't answer.

"I guess you _wouldn't_ know. It is pretty crazy. Like magic or something."

"I'll tell you all in the morning. Please, if we continue this, we will wake Weiss."

"That's four Ws in a row. You're such a poetic knight." She got up off her chair and lay down on the mat Weiss had been using."

"You are not going to sleep in your own room?"

"Nah. I'm gonna stay here to make sure you don't try anything funny with Weiss."

He reddened.

"I'm joking. I trust you, you know. As much as she does. Anyway, good night, good knight."

"Funny."

"I know I am." There were a few moments of silence in the room before Yang finished with, "She never gave up on you."

—

Weiss opened her eyes to bright, warm sunlight hitting her face. Something was strange. There was an arm around her shoulder and a hand on her head. She looked up at Bedivere. She thought she'd never see those hazel eyes ever again, but there they were, returning her gaze.

"Good morning, Weiss," he said quietly to her.

Her eyes immediately began to well up and she pulled herself close to him, wrapping her arms around his body as she pressed her head up against his side. She tried to stop the flood, but it was no use. She was now an ocean of emotions overflowing from her eyes.

Bedivere sat quiet as she sniffled and sobbed against his chest, wetting his shirt with her tears. He gently stroked her hair, which she had let fall freely before going to sleep the night before. He leaned his own head closer to hers until they touched.

"I thought," she managed, "I thought I'd never see you again."

"I told you I would never leave you."

She nodded before burying herself in him again, holding him tightly as if to keep him from being snatched away from her once more.

"Are you hungry?" he asked her.

"You are not cooking breakfast in your condition," she said. "Hell, you're not doing _anything_ in your condition."

He chuckled. "But I'm fine. I swear."

"I don't care! I just...I just wanna lie here with you for a little longer."

"That's fine with me."

Yang walked into the room after washing up, stopping just past the threshold before quietly backing out. She peeked from around the wall, watching as Weiss continued sobbing while Bedivere played with her hair.

 _What now, then, Weiss?_ she thought. _There's no way you're breaking it off with him now, not after all this._


	19. Chapter XIX

CHAPTER XIX

 _Für immer Gebunden_

"Remember, Oscar, it's all in your heart," Qrow said. "No over-thinking anything."

"All in my heart," Oscar repeated. "Got it."

"Okay, here goes!" Nora said before dashing forward and swinging her hammer.

"You'd better dodge that!" Qrow said. "Or she's gonna kill you!"

"Waah!" Oscar cried before rolling out of the way. He fled as Nora chased after him, cackling as she delivered an incessant flurry of attacks. There was absolutely nothing he could do against her onslaught. Defense was out of the question. She'd crush his aura in a single hit. Dodging was all he had left. Even countering was impossible; she was unbelievably fast.

"Does she look faster than usual?" Ren said.

"Yeah," Jaune said. "I think she might still have some leftover juice from that thunderstorm."

"That was more than a week ago."

"I know, right?"

"W-Wait!" Oscar said, stumbling to the ground as Nora smashed a hole in the ground behind him. "C-Can I please go back to training against Jaune?"

"Hey!" Jaune said. "What are you trying to say, huh?"

Oscar fell to the ground again and Nora leaped up into the air, hammer ready to fall. "No! Please!" He squeezed his eyes shut as he put up his arms in defense. Not that it would do any good.

She landed lightly right next to him before extending a hand. He opened one eye to peek at her. She chuckled and he accepted her hand.

"Got you scared there, huh?" she giggled.

" _Terrified_!"

"Qrow is correct," said a voice they hadn't heard in far too long. "You are thinking about it too much."

Everyone stood up to face the entryway.

"Is this for real?" Ruby said.

"I knew my faith was not misplaced," Ren said.

"Uh, who are you?" Oscar said before turning to the side and listening to an internal voice. "Oh, you're the one who is not of our world."

"Is that what the Wizard calls me?" Bedivere said, marching with strong strides to Oscar.

"Wizard?"

"That must be the nature of the presence inside you. Unless I am mistaken."

"Oh, I guess so?"

"Sir Bedivere of Kameloth," he said, extending a hand, which Oscar shook. He turned to the crowd. "And I don't believe we have officially met, but you must be Blake, Weiss's Faunus friend."

"Yeah," Blake said. "We only saw each other real quick. Sorry for what Sun did, by the way. I keep telling him not to rob every rich-looking guy he runs into."

Sun shrugged.

"It is forgiven," Bedivere said, extending a hand. Blake also extended hers, but did not expect him to take her hand and place a kiss on it. She pulled her hand away before giving him a suspicious look.

"It's okay, Blake," Ruby said. "He does that to all the girls."

"Huh?" Nora said. "He didn't do that to me!"

"I do apologize," Bedivere said before reaching for Nora's hand and proceeding to kiss it, which did not happen because in less time than it takes for the human eye to blink, her hammer was fully formed and in direct contact with his head. He grunted with the impact.

"Oh!" Ruby gasped. "Yeah, I probably should've warned you about that."

"Yes," Bedivere groaned. "You probably should have."

Weiss couldn't help but chuckle. _That's what you get_ , she thought to herself. Yang must have read her mind because she gave her a light elbow as they shared a quiet laugh.

"Anyway," Bedivere said, getting back into the ring. "Oscar."

"Yes?" the boy said.

"Let us bring about your true potential."

"O-Okay."

"This oughta be good," Qrow said.

Bedivere drew Caliburn, which seemed to shine with its own light. "The first lesson we will cover is footwork. Your stance is too wide. Bring your feet closer together, just a little more than shoulder-width apart."

Oscar did as he was told.

"This stance provides a well-balanced form, not too aggressive and not too relaxed. You will be able to respond reasonably well to any kind of threat. A neutral stance such as this will also serve to mask your intentions from your opponent. You do not want to announce everything you are going to do."

Oscar nodded.

"Now, have they covered basic swordsmanship with you?"

"Jaune and Hillphire taught me a little bit."

"Good. Then, you know basic swings and parrying."

"I know them. Being good at them is another story."

"Do not think about that. That cane you hold in your hand, it is not a cane anymore. It is your sword, an extension of your very self."

Oscar held the cane out in front of him, grasping the handle with two hands, strong hand in front and off-hand in back.

"Excellent form. I shall come at you now. Do what is necessary to keep my sword from making contact with your body."

The boy gave a nod before the knight dashed at him with a diagonal downward swing, which he parried before blocking a follow-up rising swing, leaping back to put distance between himself and the knight.

"Good," Bedivere said. "Now you must learn to stop being on the defensive. Right now I am your enemy. If you do not kill me, I will kill you. Understand?"

Oscar swallowed hard before nodding.

"Do away with that fear in you. You are more than a mere farm boy now. You are a legendary warrior."

He closed his eyes, relaxing his mind and body at once.

"Have at you!"

Oscar's parries and swings were nearly perfect. Bedivere fought with the appropriate level of skill and force, but even if he had turned it up a notch, it seemed this simple-looking boy would have no trouble at all keeping up with him. The presence he could sense inside Oscar was strong indeed. If only he could get the boy to fully embrace what dwelled within.

The scuffle continued with Bedivere steadily increasing the intensity and skill level. Oscar himself did not notice, but the audience certainly did. By the time they got to the end of their sparring session, Oscar had been fully winded, though he was still ready for more.

"All right," Bedivere said, bringing Caliburn overhead for a heavy strike. "Now let us test the strength of your aura. Concentrate on your goal, Oscar. Do not falter, not for a moment!"

A strong wind-like force blew from Bedivere's body as he leaped up into the air to bring down his sword on the boy. A series of gasps and cries came from the crowd as Oscar brought up his weapon, projecting an invisible force field that completely stopped Caliburn from breaking through.

A small blast wave erupted from the impact point, throwing Bedivere back several feet, where he landed upright, sword held down, grin plastered on his face.

"Excellent work," he said, sheathing his sword. "You may return your face to normal again."

"Huh?" Oscar said, his fierce look vanishing.

"That's more like it. While it is necessary for you to harbor a certain level of ferocity on the battlefield, you must never abandon your gentleness, for that is what separates a true warrior from a barbarian."

"That was awesome!" Ruby said as she jumped up and down. "Sir Bedivere!" she said, pointing a finger at him and mimicking his accent. "You owe me a duel as well, good knight!"

"All in its time," Bedivere said with a smile. "Weiss has updated me on the situation with the White Fang. Should we all have some breakfast now?"

—

"So you have been away on these missions all this time," Bedivere clarified after the group had brought him up to speed on everything.

"That's right," Blake said.

He turned to Hollie. "And you have the ability to sing and bring courage to people."

"And to bring down the enemy's motivation a notch if I have to," Hollie said.

"I see. It seems we have all we need for a complete team to defend Mistral with. Tell me more about this Spring Maiden, though. I find them intriguing."

"They're like you," Jaune said. "Able to use magic."

"Magic?"

"Dust effects without the Dust. Like you."

"How powerful are they?"

"They're basically the physical embodiments of the four seasons," Qrow said. "The eggs are great, by the way. I had no idea knights could cook so good."

"I'm glad you enjoy them. What do you mean by they are physical embodiments of the seasons?"

"Simply put, they are the living incarnations of the fundamental forces of nature. And with that, they are capable of wielding powers that are beyond what any Dust master could ever hope to be capable of."

"And that is why this Cinder person is such a threat. And also why acquiring the Spring Maiden is of extremely high priority."

"Exactly."

"I do appreciate that this group has decided to prioritize the defense of this city against an anticipated White Fang attack. As a knight myself, my first choice would have been to protect the citizens. Although, perhaps the choice was incorrect as it has been eight days since the Grimm attack and still no sign of the White Fang."

"We still can't go after the Spring Maiden, though, because Blake and Sun have confirmed an imminent attack on the city."

"Then, this means they know we're here. It could be just as likely that this Salem individual is using this information to her advantage. She knows all of the kingdoms' resources are stretched thin and that the threat of the White Fang will keep us here. She will likely pursue the Spring Maiden while we await the attack."

"Don't underestimate my mom, though," Yang said. "Even if they sent everybody they had to try and grab the Spring Maiden, who is most likely better with her powers than Amber was, those two alone would put up the biggest fight and probably even kill off most of their attackers before they went down."

"Yang's right," Oscar said. "And besides, the secrecy of their tribe is their greatest asset."

"I do have one question," Bedivere said. "This Lionheart fellow, he is the headmaster of this academy, correct?"

"Yeah," Qrow said.

"Why have I not seen him anywhere?"

"I dunno. The guy just disappears from time to time."

"I see."

"Now, it's your turn. Why the hell did you have wounds that Weiss shoulda had?"

"I believe that is my Semblance."

"Wait, what?" Ruby said.

"You've all explained that one's Semblance is the thing that is the very core of one's being, correct?"

"In a manner of speaking, yes," Ren said.

"Ren, your Semblance is the ability to cloak your emotions and thus hide yourself from the Grimm."

He nodded.

"Nora's Semblance is the ability to absorb electrical energy and transform it into physical strength."

"We still gotta do that again!" she said.

"Ruby's is speed, or specifically rose petals, for Weiss it's her glyph projection, Blake's is shadow copy creation, Yang can transform rage and damage incurred into physical power, Monkey King is able to clone himself."

"You see?" Sun said excitedly, turned to Blake. "He acknowledges my majesty!"

"Okay!" Blake said. "Stop interrupting!"

Bedivere chuckled. "Hollie can lift or defeat spirits with her song, Jaune's is still unknown, as is Oscar's, and Qrow you are...misfortune?"

"Yup," he said. "So you better keep your distance if you don't wanna get hurt."

"I don't think I have to be near you just to get hurt. I am a knight. To place myself in harm's way for the sake of another is my very duty." He paused in thought. "I suppose, then, that my Semblance is my bond with Weiss."

She looked at him.

"What do you mean?" Yang said.

"I believe the very first time it manifested itself was when she summoned me. I was literally born into your world with my Semblance already fully active."

"How does it work, though?"

"From what I have gathered, I am capable of sensing when she is threatened and I can sense her presence no matter where she is or how far away. And from what we have seen, I am capable of taking upon myself any life-threatening injuries she may receive in battle."

"Cast all of your burdens upon me," Weiss said quietly.

"Huh?" Yang said. "What does that mean?"

"Oh, it's just, it was something he said during the first battle I saw him in."

"I guess it was appropriate. So, basically, your Semblance does nothing for you."

"That is not correct," Bedivere said. "The common interpretation is that one's Semblance represents the core of one's being. In that case, my Semblance truly is a reflection of my purpose in this world."

Yang gasped. "Ohhh, shit! Which is to serve your lady!"

"Precisely."

Weiss started to redden and she looked down, playing with her hash browns.

"Therefore, it is not correct to say that it does nothing for me. It is, in fact, the very fulfillment of the one thing that means more to me than anything else."

"That's definitely something," Sun said. "I don't think I've ever heard of a Semblance that's completely selfless. I mean, I thought Hollie's was pretty unique when we first ran into her, since she mostly uses it on allies, but then again she can also use it to demoralize enemies. And helping out your allies also kinda helps you out in the end, too. But yours is totally different."

"Yeah, there's nothing like it," Qrow said. "You really are special. Tell me one thing, though. If you really are a real guy from some other world that got brought here, why is it that you're so fixed on Weiss?"

"I honestly do not know the answer to that question," Bedivere said. "When I came to, that was the one thing that dominated everything else in my mind. 'Keep her safe.' It was as though the voice of the gods themselves echoed in my ears over and over again until I finally found her."

"Dang," Yang said.

"You mean, _Yang_ ," Sun said giving her a low five.

"You guys," Ruby whined, pulling her hood over her head and down as far as she could to cover her face completely.

"I don't know you," Blake said, turning away from Sun.

"What?" he chuckled.

"That's a heck of a love story, though," Hollie said, to which both Bedivere and Weiss reddened. "I mean, you basically know everything she likes and doesn't like, right?"

"More or less," Bedivere said, clearing his throat.

"Wait," she turned to Weiss, "do _you_ know what he likes and doesn't like? Since, you know, the whole connection Semblance thing?"

"I think that's a one-way thing," Weiss said. "Cuz I never know what he's thinking sometimes."

Yang coughed, grabbing her glass and downing all of the water. A brief awkward silence fell on the table.

"So," Jaune said, turning to Oscar. "That was some pretty good moves, man."

"Thanks, I guess," Oscar said.

"None of that 'I guess' crap. You know you were basically keeping up with him, right?"

"If you say so."

"So, he didn't notice," Ren said.

"Huh?"

"You do know Bedivere was ramping it up, right?" Nora asked. "I mean, he literally went for a big smash at the very end and you totally blocked it with your aura."

He looked at the table. That was true. Bedivere had gone for a blow that certainly should have terminated him. Or knocked him out at least.

"Let's get more of that out of you once your food has had a chance to settle," Bedivere said. "And you won't be the only one. Now that you've got a proper instructor, you will all be ready by the time the White Fang attacks."

"You sayin' I sucked at my job?" Qrow said, standing up to bring his plate to the sink.

"Not at all. I'm only claiming to be better."

"Oh, you got jokes, huh?"

Ruby and Yang chuckled.

"And just whose side are you two supposed to be on anyway?"

"Uncle Qrow," Ruby said. "You did good."

"Yeah," Yang said. "We're proud of you."

"Oh, ha-ha," Qrow said. "You two got jokes, too, huh?"

"No, really!" Ruby said. "We are totally proud of you!"


	20. Chapter XX

CHAPTER XX

 _Das Schwert im Stein_

"You've improved," Bedivere said to Jaune as the latter stooped over.

"Really?" he panted. "Cuz I can't tell."

"You have," Ruby said. "High five, Jaune!"

Jaune lifted his hand to high-five her, but missed. She fought to hold in her chuckle. It escaped.

"I can't even do _that_ right," he said.

"Jaune!" Ruby whined at him.

"All right, that's enough," Bedivere said. "Unless you wish to skip your turn."

"No! It's my turn!"

Nora balled her fists from excitement. "I'm next, okay?" she said.

"Why wait?" Bedivere said.

"Huh?"

"Hang on," Ruby said, "you want us to fight you at the same time?"

"Why not?" Bedivere said.

"Are you serious?" Jaune said.

"I'm not complaining!" Nora said as she leaped up to join them in the ring.

"Oh, crap, I should probably get outta here!"

Ruby and Nora stood side by side, weapons live and ready, as Bedivere squared off with them. He held Caliburn in front of his chest, blade perfectly vertical.

"Whenever you two are ready," he said.

Ruby and Nora glanced at each other, both grinning. Ruby was the first to start off the attack, her Semblance allowing her to arrive first. Bedivere blocked each strike from Crescent Rose, all the while keeping an eye on Nora, who was rushing at them. From the way she held Magnhild, he anticipated a heavy attack from above. These youngsters, though they fought with heroic levels of spirit, telegraphed their intentions far too easily.

Just as Nora approached from above, Bedivere outmaneuvered Ruby and kicked her away, holding up Caliburn, which completely nullified Nora's otherwise powerful assault. The others noticed that he held up his sword with a single hand, the other arm behind his back.

"Now," he said, "we shall test the limits of your ability to fight."

A shockwave pulsed from Caliburn, throwing Nora backwards to land next to Ruby, who was just getting up. Bedivere stood his ground, holding Caliburn in a reverse grip behind his back, blade pointing up toward the ceiling.

"Okay, I'm out of ideas," Nora whispered to Ruby.

"We've only been at this for thirty seconds," Ruby said. "There must be something we can come up with!"

"Attack together, then?"

"Let's try it!"

Ruby put a hand on Nora and then activated her Semblance, hurling both together at high speeds toward Bedivere. He pointed Caliburn at them. An invisible force slowed them to a near-halt before they touched down on the ground.

They looked at each other curiously before exploding into a flurry of attacks against him, but despite fighting one-handed and being outnumbered two to one, he managed to block and parry every single swing from both girls.

Eventually, he decided to disarm them, effortlessly hooking Crescent Rose up with Caliburn, taking advantage of the scythe's shape, and then using both to ensnare Magnhild as well. The two girls backed away, looking at their hands, each other, then back to Bedivere, who was in possession of both their weapons.

"There is a motto I once shared with my fellow knights of Kameloth," Bedivere said, hurling Crescent Rose into the high ceiling, embedding it in the wood. "'I am the weapon. Everything else around me is no more than a tool.' Ruby, your crippling weakness is your inability to fight without Crescent Rose." He also launched Magnhild up into the ceiling next to Crescent Rose, where it wedged itself into the wood. "Nora, it isn't as obvious with you since you actually have the ability to fight empty-handed, but you still require some improvement."

"Great," Ruby said, bringing up her fists awkwardly.

"You know I still got some juice left from that fight," Nora said, smashing her fists together.

"I was wondering why you were so energetic today," Bedivere said before thrusting Caliburn into the ground and taking up an aggressive fighting stance. "Now, it's time for me to go on the offensive."

Nora grinned as she dashed forward to meet him head on, but she gasped when he vanished into thin air. She turned around. He was heading straight for her partner.

"No!" she yelled before running to catch up to them.

Ruby tried to block his strike, but his hand got through, gripping her in the neck. From the look on his face, she didn't think he was gonna let go. He lifted her up off the ground, other hand retracted and ready for a powerful strike.

"Ruby!" Yang cried out. "Remember what I taught you!"

 _Right_ , Ruby thought, trying to recall their past sparring sessions. They were so long ago, though, and with Bedivere's death grip on her throat, it was nearly impossible to remember anything. _Wait, it was...elbows up, then down as hard as you can!_

She did exactly that, breaking Bedivere's grip on her and sending her falling back to the ground. The knight immediately turned around to engage with Nora, who had just caught up to them. Ruby coughed and wheezed, trying to get air back into her lungs.

In the meantime, Jaune and Yang were going to go and help their companions, but Qrow stopped them. They turned to him. His only response was to shake his head.

"Qrow's right," Ren said. He was already standing as well, just barely holding himself in place. "From our point of view, Bedivere's treatment seems harsh, but just imagine how the actual enemy will treat us."

"Damn it," Jaune said. "I just can't bear to see Nora and Ruby get treated like that!"

Bedivere landed a strong punch on Nora's jaw, sending her flying as her aura broke in midair. He immediately returned his attention to Ruby, who was just barely managing to get back to her feet. Having spent the last minute recalling everything her sister and dad had taught her about open-hand fighting, she engaged him in combat, managing to keep him from grabbing her by the neck again, but still, it was all she could to just to avoid getting punched in the face or the gut or—

 _Crap!_ she thought as he succeeded with a leg sweep, which took her foundation out from beneath her. He immediately went for an elbow strike, sending her into the ground and breaking her aura.

"That's it!" Jaune said, rushing forward. "I can't just sit here and watch this!"

"Jaune, wait!" Ren said before deciding to run in after his friend.

Jaune let out a battle cry as he swung his fist at Bedivere, but the knight made quick work of him. A single punch to the gut was enough to shatter his aura completely and drop him to the ground.

Ren was the only one out of the whole team to be able to hold his own against the knight. As someone well-versed in hand-to-hand combat, he was more than capable of matching the knight's incredible fighting prowess.

"I hope you're not holding back on me," Ren said.

"I wouldn't dare insult you like that," Bedivere said before they both proceeded to exchange another blitz of punches and kicks and attempted grappling.

Though Ren managed to land more than one strike on the knight, the latter's endurance and sheer strength was just too much for him and Bedivere caught him in a chokehold. After several seconds of Ren attempting to break free, his aura finally broke as well. Team RNJR had been soundly defeated.

Bedivere let out a heavy sigh. "Your spirits are as easy to break as your auras," he said before proceeding to retrieve Caliburn and sheathe it. He walked out of the room without a word.

Yang looked over at Weiss, who didn't seem to have any reaction to what just happened.

"None of that bothered you?" Yang asked her.

She didn't reply.

"Weiss?"

"Huh?"

Yang sighed. "Forget it."

"Oh. Okay."

—

Bedivere had just entered the academy's garden when he fell against the wall. He banged his fist softly against the wood. He let out a heavy sigh before walking out onto the veranda, allowing a soft breeze to catch him. There was a presence behind him, one that contained two souls.

"What do you want, Wizard?" Bedivere said.

"Why do you keep calling me that?" Oscar said, joining him.

"Never mind."

After some silence, Oscar spoke up again. "There's someone who wants to talk with you."

"I had a feeling that's why you came." He turned to the boy just as he finished bringing Ozpin to the surface. "So, Wizard, why have you come to seek me out? Were you going to lecture me on how I was far too hard on those children?"

"You see them as children as well, do you?" Ozpin said.

"Are they not?"

"Of course they are. But I am not going to lecture you. It seems you've already done that yourself."

Bedivere looked out over the city.

"When we clashed swords earlier this morning, I came to a realization. You are more than what you seem. In fact, we may have more in common than I previously anticipated. You have seen many things, haven't you?"

He looked over at Ozpin.

"I thought so. While everything you have told us so far is, in fact, true, there are plenty of things you have withheld. For example, your age. The look in your eye tells me you are much older than you appear."

"I don't reincarnate the way you do, if that's what you are trying to insinuate."

"I didn't think so. You are immortal, aren't you?"

He didn't answer.

"Am I correct in assuming, then, that you are so harsh on those children because you don't wish to lose them?"

He maintained his silence.

"Hmm. And is it also safe to assume that, unlike myself, your eternal damnation of immortality was brought upon you not by the gods, but by your own will?"

"Wizard," Bedivere said as he turned to face him. "Exactly what are your intentions this very moment?"

"Only to let you know that you are not alone in the world."

"Aren't I? I am, quite literally, an invader of your world, pulled here through an unnatural event, a cosmic anomaly. I myself am an anomaly in relation to your world."

"It's fitting, then, isn't it, that Weiss Schnee would be the catalyst that brought you here?"

He didn't answer, turning back to the horizon instead.

"It took me some time, but I think I've figured it out. That's the reason she has so much in common with you, your high status in society, your nobility at heart, your tendency toward self-deprecation, and of course, the fact that your own symbol-based magic is quite similar to her glyph formation. And then there's your Semblance. Although, I believe that is something that our world imposed upon you at the moment of your arrival. It seems to stem from a combination of your own knightly virtues and Miss Schnee's need to be protected and desire to stand on her own two feet, to be like you, independent and strong and noble at heart."

"You know so much about me," Bedivere sighed.

"On the contrary, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Am I wrong?"

He didn't answer.

"No matter what you may be thinking, Sir Bedivere, I wish to let you know that I do not consider you an anomaly, despite how you view yourself. You may be the greatest ally we could have ever hoped for in the fight against Salem and the forces of darkness."

Bedivere chuckled.

"Something I said?"

"Just the word 'darkness'."

"Yes. As a knight, you fought against such evil in your own world, I presume."

"Indeed."

"I do not wish to intrude on you any longer. And there is no need to worry about Oscar. He knows to keep this to himself."

Bedivere sensed the change in the boy's aura. Ozpin was back under and Oscar was now the dominant persona. The knight was taken aback when the boy stood in front of him and bowed.

"Thank you for the training, Sir Bedivere," Oscar said. "And what you and Ozpin shared here is safe with me."

"I don't deserve your loyalty," Bedivere muttered under his breath.

"Huh?" He looked to the side, listening to Ozpin's voice. "Oh. Well, please, don't be so hard on yourself. You've done a lot of good, even if you do tend to focus more on the bad things you've done. See you later."

Bedivere waited until his footsteps were gone before drawing Caliburn. He looked at the glistening steel and gold and gemstones. No one else would be capable of perceiving it, but he could see the shadow forming in the core of its essence. Though this sword was famed to be a legendary holy weapon, nothing could be further from the truth. Just as the Kingdom's health matched the health of the King, so, too, did Caliburn mirror its wielder's spirit. And now, with the shadow starting to form, Bedivere knew for sure that he could no longer keep this sword in his possession.

He stealthy climbed the mountain, ascending to its very peak where no buildings stood and where no paths led. He found a massive stone at the summit, holding Caliburn up high for a moment, admiring its luster in the afternoon sunlight. He closed his eyes, recalling everything he had gone through with his king and his fellow knights, the endless death, the blood they had shed together, the tears they had cried together, the loss they had endured together.

All of it was for nothing.

With a great shout, he thrust Caliburn down into the boulder, securing it firmly in place. He held out his right hand over the sword, the Nexus on his arm coming to life and emitting a glow that pierced his sleeve. Though Caliburn was no ordinary sword, that tiny bit of shadow within it was enough to compel Bedivere to erect a barrier around it, just in case.

When the barrier was in place, Bedivere backed away from the rock upon which Caliburn had been sealed. He was back on the dirt when he fell to his knees and the tears began to fall.

"My king," he said quietly. "Please, forgive this knight of yours. Please excuse my failure to protect Albion, to protect everything we had loved and fought and died for. I thank you for having lent me your sword, but I am not worthy to bear Caliburn, nor will I ever be. I shall walk into perdition of my own accord, so as to keep your hands from being stained of this deed."


	21. Chapter XXI

CHAPTER XXI

 _In der Heißesten Flamme Geschmiedet_

It was late in the afternoon when the group gathered together again after a short break from training. It was supposed to have been Ruby and Nora's turn to prepare supper this time, but with the pummeling they had taken from Bedivere, Blake and Hollie had volunteered to cook.

"I will have you know," Hollie said as she set the plates before the group, "that I am particularly proud of this dish."

"It looks like chicken," Nora said. "I like chicken."

"It's my specialty, Lemon Pepper Pepper Chicken."

"Did you say 'pepper' twice?" Oscar asked.

"Yeah," Sun said, "I heard you say it twice, too."

"You both heard right," Hollie said. "Some idiot suggested 'Stoplight Chicken' this one time, but I told him to go bite himself."

Yang chuckled. "I kinda like that. Cuz of the red and—"

"And yellow, and green peppers. Yeah, I know. But I am _not_ calling it 'Stoplight Chicken'."

"Oh, wow, this is good," Sun said. "Too bad the bird and the crazy knight are missing out on this."

Weiss flinched and Blake pinched Sun as hard as she could on his side.

"Ow!" he yelped. "What the heck was that for?"

"For being a moron," she said, sitting down next to him.

"What did you put in this?" Ren asked. "It's really good. And the lemon isn't too overpowering. The pepper is just right as well."

"It's all in the name," Hollie said. "Lemon, pepper, pepper, and chicken. Oh, and rice, of course."

"You'll have to teach me this someday."

"Oooh!" Nora said. "So you can cook for me?"

He chuckled. "Yes, Nora, only for you."

"Hey," Jaune groaned. "You can sing to lift up spirits, right?"

"Yeah, that's right," Hollie said, taking a bite of her food. The rest of the table had complimented her on the dish, but she wasn't satisfied with it. There was too much lemon.

"Does your singing also help get rid of soreness? Cuz I hurt everywhere. I'm hurting in places I didn't even know could hurt."

"Me, too," Ruby groaned. She was resting her head on the table, having touched none of her food.

"You two did take quite the beating," Yang said. "Don't worry, though. I'll get him good tomorrow."

"Good luck," Ren said.

"Where did the two of them go, anyway?"

—

"Looks like things are going smoothly," Qrow said as he and Bedivere inspected the construction at Hillphire Forge.

"Yes, I may have to rename my business," Hillphire said.

"Yeah, it's a whole factory now. And your warehouse, hoo boy."

"It seems you still have your own private space," Bedivere said, examining the original forge proper.

"That's right," Hillphire said. "I specifically requested my own research and development area where I can conduct testing of my own while the rest of the forge works on these general designs I already have."

"Dust-powered armor," Qrow said, looking at the main plans. "Interesting. Now if only Ironwood would take a page out of your book."

"There are simply too many weaknesses involved with automated defenses, as we witnessed during the Fall of Beacon. Now, I know the two of you didn't come all the way out here just to see the new factory. Would you like to check up on the progress of the other project we had on the side?"

"Yeah, that's important. Let's go, knight."

Bedivere followed the pair into a segregated area where the technology appeared to be significantly more advanced than the rest of the forge. The room they entered was immaculate, the opposite of the typically messy workbench where nearly all of his weapons were fashioned.

"What is all this?" Bedivere asked.

"This is where my life's most important work is done," Hillphire said. "Also the place that Atlas wants to break into more than anything else."

"You compete with them?"

"Nah. Those guys can go pound sand. They're all into grand-scale stuff. I've always been more interested in the individual weapons that individual Huntsmen want crafted. Things with personality."

"So, what is this major project you are working on in here?"

"Sir Bedivere," Hillphire began as he opened the heavy vault door. "Do you believe in resurrection?"

The inner sanctum of the vault contained a number of machines working on something in the very center. From what Bedivere could tell, it was a robotic unit of some kind, but there was something peculiar about this robot. It was unlike any he had ever come across. This one was almost human.

"What is this?" Bedivere finally asked.

"Forbidden science," Hillphire said. "At least, I think it should be forbidden. It attempts to trap a soul within a machine."

"A soul? In a machine?"

He nodded. "At first it was thought that only a living body could contain a soul. You are aware that all living things contain a soul, right? Plants, animals, humans?"

"Right."

"Well, somebody had the bright idea to try and generate a soul within an inanimate object. In this case, a machine. This robot's central processing unit is quite unique from other machines in that it is capable of learning human behaviors and culture, effectively simulating a human being. But the thing is, this machine is also capable of producing an aura."

"Which is only possible if it contains a soul."

"Precisely. Now, I cannot be certain if the machine itself generated the soul or if the soul originated from an external source. But one thing is sure." He pointed to a monitor. "Do you see that?"

"What does all of that mean?"

"These readings indicate that there is still a soul in this body. It's detecting an incredibly faint aura."

"A soul? In that?"

"Yes. Even though it is in pieces like that and rendered completely inoperable, there is still a soul in there."

"I didn't want you to be right," Qrow said. "I mean, it's great that you can get her back, but fuck me if I ever got stuck in my own body like that."

"And that is the reason I have expedited the work on her. I need to bring her back as soon as possible. I may have a petrifying fear of the Grimm, but I cannot even fathom what it might be like if she is still conscious inside there."

"Dude, don't even talk about that shit."

Bedivere stepped closer to the heap of scrap metal that somewhat resembled a human body, only mangled and with a blank expression on its face. Something compelled him to reach out and touch the machine's hand and when his right hand came into contact with it, the Nexus on his arm came alive as his mind was flooded with all sorts of imagery, memories that weren't his, emotions that belonged to another. But the one thing that stood out to him more than anything was an extreme sensation of isolation and a tiny voice that cried out for help.

He stepped back, his chest heavy. He stuck a shaky hand into the pouch on the left side of his belt.

"William," he said to Hillphire. "How much gold would help in expediting the process?"

"Huh?" the blacksmith said. "I mean, don't get me wrong, money would really help, but what I really need is time—"

"How much?" he said sternly.

"H-Honestly, I don't know."

"How is one hundred pieces of gold?"

"O-One hundred? That's like...fifteen million Lien! That is far too much!"

"It's settled." He walked over to the only empty table in the room and counted out ten stacks of ten one-ounce gold rounds. "There's no need for a contract. Do with this whatever you must."

"I, uh, I don't know what to say."

"Swear to me, blacksmith. Swear to me that you will do _everything_ in your power to bring her back."

"Y-Yes, that was my intention from the beginning. What is the matter?"

Bedivere looked back to the machine. The sensation of loneliness was as strong as ever. Perhaps it was his connection to Weiss along with his own self-isolation that amplified the feeling, but still. That brief connection was all he needed to be resolute about saving that soul from this iron coffin.

"No one," Bedivere muttered. "No one must ever be forced to endure such a fate. I alone deserve eternal damnation."

"What are you mumbling?" Qrow said. "You gotta speak up, man."

"I swear it," Hillphire said. "From a blacksmith to a knight, I swear that I will do everything in my power to ensure that she is saved from that fate."

"Good," Bedivere said, leading the way out of the vault.

Hillphire sealed the vault behind him. "Speaking of our bond as blacksmith and knight, I do have something for you. Do you remember that small project you had commissioned me to do?"

"Have you finished them?"

"I have." He led the way to the warehouse. "Have you decided on a vehicle for the other project?"

"A motorcycle. Yellow in color."

"Wait, this isn't for Yang, is it?"

"It is. We had a little accident on the road and she destroyed her motorcycle by colliding with my body."

Hillphire and Qrow both laughed.

"Wait, _you're_ the one who broke Yang's bike?" Qrow said.

"Guilty as charged," Bedivere said.

"I know some motorcycle dealers in the city," Hillphire said. "You've been generous enough with your donations that not only do I consider you a shareholder of Hillphire Innovations, but I would be willing to donate my own expertise on vehicle selection and scout one out for you."

"If it isn't any trouble. I do admit that I haven't the slightest clue what motorcycle would be best for her."

"Leave that to me. From what I've heard from Ruby, I think I know just the bike."

"Oh, so you still talk to her, do ya?" Qrow said.

Hillphire instantly reddened. "Well, she does stop by the forge every now and then."

"Sure she does." He put a heavy hand on his shoulder. "Will, you remember what we talked about the first time, right?"

"Yes, Mister Qrow," he grunted. "I do."

"Good."

"Now you both have my curiosity piqued," Bedivere said with a chuckle.

"Here it is," Hillphire said, reaching into a segregated area in the warehouse. "Both orders just as you detailed. A nigh-indestructible katana and a claymore of my own design."

"Katana?" Qrow said. "You're a knight, not a ninja."

"Samurai used katana," Bedivere said as he accepted the sword from Hillphire. "Ninja did not have specific weapons. They used what they had on-hand. If that happened to be a katana, then that was it. Considering many samurai also doubled as shinobi, it is not a stretch to say that they did use katana, but shinobi did not specifically use katana as their staple weapon. Their true weapon was stealth and information."

"Much more powerful than anything I could forge, admittedly," Hillphire said.

"Hmm," Bedivere said as he unsheathed and inspected the sword. "Compared to most of your work, this sword looks surprisingly traditional. Although I do notice that it is significantly longer than most katana."

"Yes, let's bring these to the testing site next door." Hillphire led the way with another slim case tucked under his arm. "Just as I told you, I used earth and gravity Dust to strengthen the blade. Earth Dust gives it a high density and rigidity while gravity Dust creates a strong bond between the individual molecules."

"Most traditional swords are forged with a degree of flexibility, but you opted for higher rigidity."

"That's right. The molecular lattice is so tightly bound by the effects of weaving atomic-scale gravity and earth Dust that it can handle extreme amounts of stress. The first sword I built using this technique is actually the sword Jaune uses now."

"I was wondering about that sword's durability. It clashed with Caliburn without breaking. Needless to say, that is quite impressive."

"Where is your sword anyway?"

Bedivere didn't answer. Hillphire recalled from their very first meeting that he mentioned being unworthy of the sword and decided not to pry any further.

"Owing to its metallurgy," Hillphire continued, "this sword should be able to withstand roughly one hundred gigatons of force."

"Did you say 'gigatons'?" Qrow said.

"That's right."

"What the hell?"

"The prototype that I built before Jaune's upgrade withstood exactly 0.901 gigatons of force applied to it before shattering. Jaune's sword was merely reinforced with earth and gravity Dust. This katana, on the other hand, was forged from scrap. The Dust has bonded with the steel at the molecular level. Of course, I have not yet tested it as I did not want to break your sword before you even had a chance to hold it, but from my calculations and after applying certain theories, this sword should be able to withstand at least one hundred gigatons. Possibly more."

Engraved on both sides of the blade closest to the hand guard was the inscription:

破る こと の できない

"Yaburu koto no dekinai," Bedivere read aloud.

"You can read that?" Qrow said in disbelief.

"I have mentioned that I have trained with a master from the East."

"Yeah, that is what you said. You never mentioned anything about taking linguistic classes from him, too."

"Unbreakable," Bedivere translated the inscription.

"Fitting, don't you think?" Hillphire said.

"Indeed."

The test for the katana was organized around the basic principle, the cutting of multiple pillars around the wielder. However, rather than traditional tatami mats, these pillars were constructed out of solid lead.

"You've gotta be kidding me," Qrow said.

Before stepping up to the testing circle, Bedivere tucked the katana, scabbard and all, under his belt. He drew the sword, swinging it a number of times to get used to the balance.

"It's longer than most katana," he said.

"Correct," Hillphire said. "I thought it would be more appropriate for one at your height and strength to wield a longer sword. An O Katana, if you will."

"I appreciate it. The balance is quite perfect. Enough weight at the end to ensure blade momentum without being unwieldy."

"Proceed with the test when you are ready."

Bedivere stood in front of all seven targets, which were distributed randomly throughout the area. The first pillar of lead he cut cleanly with a downward diagonal strike, following up with a horizontal strike timed perfectly to cut both the falling piece and the remaining half at the same time. The next target he took down with three quick diagonal strikes, starting with an ascending cut, then two consecutive descending cuts. It was already in four segments before the pieces even began to fall. The rest of the targets went down in similar fashions.

"Dude," Qrow said. "That's impossible. No, I don't mean your technique, cuz I've seen your ass fight and that wasn't even that impressive so you can go fuck off. I'm talking about that sword cutting through all those lead bars without even slowing down."

"I can assure you," Hillphire said with a chuckle, "that the sword is capable of exactly that, but the cleanness of each cut was all him, not the sword."

"No, no, that showoff can go commit Sudoku."

"The number puzzle?" Bedivere said.

"Yes, the fucking number puzzle. Let's go see your other thing now. I bet it's as fancy schmancy as this one, too, huh?"

Hillphire chuckled as he opened the long box, which contained a claymore almost as tall as he was.

"The fuck do you need two swords for?" Qrow said. "You know what, forget it. I'm gonna go play with some guns while you two are having your little date." He went to the warehouse.

"I think you made him jealous," Hillphire said with a chuckle as he handed the claymore to Bedivere.

"Yes, I suppose," the knight said, examining the significantly more complicated piece of machinery in his hand. "Now, I left this one entirely up to your creativity. Explain to me what it is and how it works. There are certain things I am seeing here that do not belong on traditional swords."

"Basically," he began, "it's a two-in-one weapon, although I suppose technically it consists of seven individual weapons all rolled into one. You can use it like it's any other claymore or great sword, or you can activate its special ability."

"Are you trying to get me excited?"

He laughed. "Anyway, the first part of the sword is the central module, which holds all of the other swords together as a single weapon and also serves as the machinery that facilitates its second function. Do you see those two levers?"

"Yes, I was looking at them."

"The one on the pommel is the safety. You press it once and it disengages. The one right behind the cross guard is the trigger. Go ahead and hold it blade-down and then hit the levers."

Bedivere did as he was told and several mechanical parts began to move. The central sword broke apart into seven distinct swords of differing shapes and configurations with the six other swords floating around the central sword.

"How is this happening?" he asked.

"Proprietary technology," Hillphire said with a smile. "Simply put, it's a function of certain scientific principles facilitated by gravity Dust. That's all I am going to say."

"Magic."

"As the saying goes, any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

"Of course. Now, how exactly is this used as a weapon?"

"The two steps I had you do, which is to disengage the safety and press the trigger, only breaks apart the sword for maintenance and for reloading the Dust modules."

"Yes, I noticed the cartridges. Black Dust in the central sword for gravity, and in the orbiting swords it's white for wind, red for fire, yellow for lightning, dark blue for ice, brown for earth, and what is this bright orange Dust?"

"Explosive."

"Interesting."

"Oh, believe me, it gets better. Go ahead and flip the safety back on."

Once he hit the switch, the orbiting swords joined the central sword and the machinery once again clicked and whirred as everything reunited into a single great sword.

"Okay, there's something I should tell you," Hillphire said.

"What's that?"

"Um, I did something I probably should have told you about. You were in a coma, and so I couldn't exactly get your consent, so I did it without telling you."

"I am starting to get worried about what you are going to say next."

"Oh, no, I didn't, uh, no funny business. I swear."

Bedivere watched him carefully.

"Anyway, I took some scans of your body in order to try and determine your aura's waveform and despite some difficulty I was able to work something out."

"My aura's waveform?"

"Right. Every single soul can be detected by certain scanners. Each one appears as a four-dimensional waveform that can't even be displayed on most monitors. I, on the other hand, have managed to isolate and capture the waveform. And just as I suspected, every single soul is unique from the other."

"That goes without saying, does it not?"

"Of course it's been there intuitively, but I can now prove it definitively and mathematically."

"I have a feeling this ties in to your work with that robot in the vault."

"Correct. Hence the reason why Atlas wants to break into my lab so much."

"And why that's the most secure location in the building."

"Precisely. The hard drives and plans I took with me during the Grimm attack all came from that vault."

"So, what does all this have to do with this sword?"

"I have programmed that sword to resonate with your waveform alone. No one else can use its secondary functions. Here, watch this."

Bedivere handed him the sword and he pressed the safety and pulled the trigger. The swords separated again, but instead they all just fell to the ground.

"See?"

"They didn't orbit," Bedivere said.

"Right. Because the central module does not recognize my aura, or my fingerprint, so to speak."

"But I do not have an aura."

"Of course you do. You have a soul. Your aura simply manifests differently from the rest of us who were born in this world."

"Are you referring to my armor?"

"Yes, and perhaps your magic as well. Here."

He handed the sword back to him. The instant it was in Bedivere's hand, all six swords flew up from the ground and began orbiting the central sword once more.

"Think of it as an advanced form of weapon safety. Only you can use its most devastating power."

"Okay, Hillphire, now that you have gotten me thoroughly excited, I need to know what this thing can actually do."

"Pick a target out there."

Bedivere spotted a single ballistic test dummy at the far end of the testing hall.

"You have it in your mind, right?"

"Yes."

"The sword should have locked on as well. Now, disengage the safety, swing the sword three times above your head, pull the trigger, and throw it as hard as you can."

"What?"

"Just do it."

Sighing, Bedivere did exactly that. On the third swing, he pulled the trigger and hurled the sword at the target, which split into seven flying swords that ultimately hovered over the target before crashing down into it all at once. Each of the Dust effects activated simultaneously in an explosion of fire, ice, lightning, and air pressure.

"The sword with earth Dust should have penetrated the deepest, given its properties," Hillphire said. "Now, hold your hand up and will it to return to you."

Bedivere did just that and the sword recombined before flying back to him.

"This is magic," he said.

"Nope. Pure technology that works off of Dust and your existing features. Your soul is unique compared to ours. All I did was isolate the proper waveform and synchronize the weapon to it. You know how the samurai believe that the katana is an extension of the soul?"

Bedivere nodded.

"In this case, this claymore literally is an extension of your soul. It responds to your will. Do keep in mind, though, that the return function only works within a certain range. If you're too far, it won't be able to return to you."

"What is the range?"

"Approximately fifty meters. I couldn't extend the range any further than that without sacrificing a lot of its destructive power."

"Assuming you were making this for a paying customer, how much do you think you would charge that individual?"

He thought about it for a while. "Five Lien."

Bedivere gave him a wry look.

"If I gave you my actual price, you would drop an entire sack of gold coins on my lap again and I can't have you throwing so much money at me on our first date."

"By my honor as a knight, I swear not to do such a thing."

"Okay, fine. Probably around three million Lien."

"Is that how much the materials cost?"

"Not at all. Material-wise, I'd say that sword is only worth about half a million Lien, which is still much steeper than the usual order, but the rest of the money goes into the sheer ingenuity I have poured into it. And besides, I consider that weapon priceless, the pinnacle of all my work as a blacksmith."

"I can understand why. The technology you use in this particular weapon is unrivaled."

"It's also something I intend on keeping secret. That claymore is probably the only instance of it I will ever allow to exist."

"What about that robot?"

"Yes, that is precisely why. Such a technology is forbidden. To trap a soul into an object, to allow them to remain in such a wretched state for even a fraction of an eternity is unforgivable."

"I agree."

"Hey!" Qrow said as he busted through the door from the warehouse to the testing grounds. He had his flask in one hand, a half-drunk bottle in the other.

"Where on earth did he get that?" Hillphire said.

"I found it in a cupboard! You didn't let Ruby have any of this, did you?"

"Oh, dear goodness. Yang is going to be angry with me."

"You mean, Yangry?" Bedivere said. Hillphire looked at him. Both wore faces as straight as possible. Bedivere was the first to succumb, smiling before Hillphire burst into laughter.

"It wasn't funny at all," Hillphire said.

"I know, and yet we're both laughing."

"Are you saying this is Yang's bottle?" Qrow said, stumbling to them.

"Yes, and I think you should put it back," Hillphire said.

"Psh. This is cheap shit. Here's some Lien, restock that stash with better stuff, okay? I want my niece to have the good shit, not trash."

"Should you be encouraging your niece to drink?" Bedivere asked him.

"Prolly not. But she's gonna drink anyway. Might as well make sure she drinks proper liquor."

"William," Bedivere said as he slung the new claymore over his shoulder, letting the weapon hang from his back. "I must thank you again for two jobs well done."

"My pleasure," Hillphire said. "And you can expect the motorcycle soon as well."

"Please do prioritize that other project."

"Believe me, you don't need to tell me twice."

"Thank you. By the way, is there anything you wish for me to deliver to Ruby again?"

Hillphire chuckled. "No, but thanks. I figure if I'm going to send her something, I'll do it in person."

"A wise decision. Until next time."

Qrow and Bedivere left the forge, making their way back to the city.

"Two swords, huh?" Qrow said.

"Yes," Bedivere answered.

"Three if you count the one you left behind. So you and the Schnee girl really did go through all that stuff all by yourselves, huh?"

"That, we did."

"Huh. Whaddya know. She takes after her sister."

"You mean Winter?"

"Yup. Winter's a whole lot better of a fighter than Weiss, though. Hell, that's the reason one's in the Atlas military while the other just barely qualifies as a Huntress."

"What are you trying to insinuate?"

"Just that I can't see her surviving by herself out there, let alone get her hands dirty."

"Weiss is more than capable of protecting herself. Together, she and I saved four villages on the way here."

"Wait, we're talkin' about Weiss here, right?" Qrow said with a chuckle.

"Yes. That is what I said."

"That pampered little girl? You're saying _she_ was bein' a hero, too?"

His face turned grave. "What exactly are you implying, Sir Qrow?"

"You know she's been knocked out more times than anyone else on Team RWBY, right? And she gets winded way more quickly and easily than the others. She's literally the weakest on the team, physically anyway."

Bedivere began reaching for his new katana. "You had best retract those insults, Sir Qrow. I will not abide by such slurs against my lady."

Qrow looked at Bedivere's hand, which had fully grasped the hilt of his sword. "Boy, you're serious, aren't ya?"

The knight didn't answer.

"Jeez. Look, I wasn't trying to insult nobody, okay?"

"Apologize."

Qrow raised an eyebrow.

"At once."

"Okay, okay, I get the picture. I apologize for slanderin' your princess's name."

"That was not an apology."

"Holy shit, what the hell more do you want? Should I grovel at her highness's feet?"

Bedivere's intense expression did not change one bit.

"For fuck's sake. I'm sorry, okay? Are you happy?"

"Your continued insincerity is agitating."

"What? Forget this." He marched away. "I'll be at the Academy. You can stay here for all I care. Oh, and just so you know, there ain't a single Schnee out there you can trust."


	22. Chapter XXII

CHAPTER XXII

 _Duell der Ritter_

It was the third day of Bedivere's harsh training. Not one of them was granted a reprieve. If any showed weakness, he would exploit it until they were broken. Day one saw the duel between him and Team RNJR, a duel that ended with all four of them getting their auras broken. Yesterday he faced Yang and Blake. Yang had been able to match him in hand to hand combat before his unworldly stamina reserves finally outdid hers. Blake's swordsmanship was also more than a match for his, but in spite of her speed and technique, his experience proved to be the greatest advantage he had.

As far as raw skill and experience was concerned, Qrow was the only one able to equal him pound for pound. This morning would pit him against Bedivere and then Weiss would take on her own knight at the end of the day.

"Uncle Qrow!" Ruby said. "Kick his butt!"

Weiss gave her a dirty look.

Qrow chuckled as he readied his weapon. Bedivere also drew his katana, facing off with who would probably be his most worthy opponent of the week.

"I'm not gonna take it easy on you," Qrow said, resting his weapon on his shoulder.

"Is that why you haven't transformed your scythe yet?" Bedivere said.

"Nah. I've seen enough of how you fight to know that using a pole weapon against your swordsmanship is a stupid idea."

"I am looking forward to this, Mister Branwen."

"Me, too, buddy!"

They dashed at one another. Bedivere vanished as he moved at speeds faster than the human eye could catch, but he wasn't fast enough for Qrow, who immediately turned around to parry a thrust from behind.

"Sorry, bub," Qrow said, facing off with him. "I'm not into that whole backdoor entry thing."

"It's too bad," Bedivere said. "I was hoping to have a chance to penetrate you from behind."

Qrow chuckled before engaging the knight in a clash of swords.

"Hey!" Ruby said. "Quit it with the adult language!"

Yang turned to Weiss, who was watching the fight intently.

"What's with her lately?" Blake said. "She's hardly spoken to anybody in the last few days."

"Yeah," Yang said. "Ever since he woke up from his coma, it's like now she's in a coma. Only awake. That doesn't make any sense, but you know what I mean."

"Maybe all of this is getting to her."

"Probably. She's always putting on a brave face, but we all know that she gets bothered easily."

"Considering everything she's been through, I guess it's not surprising. It isn't easy to have the weight of your entire family's legacy bearing down on your shoulders."

Yang turned to her. "I'm actually surprised you're saying something like that."

Blake shrugged. "I mean, I kinda get it. My own family was once the head of the White Fang. And even though my parents never threw that kind of weight on my shoulders, it was always kinda there for me, you know?"

"That's why you joined the White Fang in the first place, wasn't it?"

She nodded. "But that's the thing. I _chose_ to join. I don't think Weiss has ever had a choice in anything. Except coming to Beacon. That's about the only thing she really got to choose for herself. She's pretty much been completely dependent on the company to support her."

"Even now it's still the same. She's cut herself off from her family altogether, but she still needs to rely on people. Hell, Bedivere alone has saved her like a million times. He nearly _died_ for her."

"Guys," Weiss said, turning to them. "If it's okay with you two, I don't really wanna hear you talking about me."

Blake and Yang stiffened.

"Yeah, no, we totally get it!" Yang said.

"Seriously, though, Weiss," Blake said. "You don't have to feel bad about having to rely on people. We're here for you because we're teammates and, more importantly, because we're friends."

"That means a lot to me, Blake," Weiss said.

Meanwhile, the duel between Bedivere and Qrow was starting to ramp up. No one else had lasted this long against the knight, but from the looks of things, Qrow hadn't even warmed up yet.

"Ain't you supposed to be a super skilled knight or somethin'?" Qrow said, resting his sword on his shoulder again as he reached into his pocket for his flask.

Without responding, Bedivere pointed at him with his finger, firing a thin bolt of lightning at the flask and knocking it out of his hand. Qrow stood in place for a few seconds, not moving even an inch. Most of the others had their mouths hanging open from the shock.

Qrow let out a sigh before pressing a lever on his sword and transforming it into full scythe form. He rushed at the knight, face completely calm. Bedivere couldn't help but grin as he defended against Qrow's onslaught, which was more ferocious than any he'd faced all week.

 _You feign rage_ , Bedivere thought, _but I know you have full control over yourself._

In spite of Qrow's increase in intensity, they were evenly matched. This knight's skill with the katana was equal to that of any elite samurai.

"I'm still surprised at how good you are with that thing," Qrow said as they faced off.

"Anything is possible if you put enough effort into it," Bedivere said, bringing the sword back for an attack.

"Heh, right you are."

They flew into another clash of blades. Bedivere nearly landed a hit on Qrow's chest, but he managed to deflect the thrust with the shaft of his weapon and followed up with a slash to the knight's legs, missing as the latter jumped up into the air to put some distance between them.

"Oh, no you don't!" Qrow said, dashing at the spot where Bedivere was going to land. "You ain't gonna be casting no magic spells on me!"

He went for a downward strike, just as Bedivere landed, but he was much too fast, vanishing in the blink of an eye the instant he touched down. Qrow ripped his scythe from the floor, taking a large chunk of it with him. He spun his weapon around, flinging the piece of wood away before going into the offensive again, preventing the knight from using any of his rune magic. Eventually, they entered into a blade deadlock.

Their faces were fierce as each one attempted to strong-arm the other, but no matter which way one tried to force the fight, the other would redirect and they'd be right back where they started.

"Fire Rune," Bedivere whispered. Qrow looked at the back of his right hand, upon which a red-orange marking appeared. " _Teufels_ —"

Before he could complete the incantation, Qrow head-butted the knight and they both stumbled away from each other.

"Shit, what the hell is your head made of?" Qrow said, putting a hand to his forehead.

"My nose," Bedivere said. "That was my best feature!"

"No it wasn't," Yang muttered, making Weiss giggle. "Oh, so you agree? What do _you_ think is his best feature, hmm?"

"Everything," Weiss said with a grin.

"Ohhh! You heard it here, live, on Yang TV!"

"Okay, let's end this dance," Qrow said, filling his weapon with his aura before launching several slashes at the knight in rapid succession.

Bedivere responded with a rapid incantation before holding up his hand. His whole body was surrounded by a sphere of light, which stopped all of Qrow's attacks, shattering only on the final aura wave.

"I thought you might have something like that up your sleeve," Qrow said, resuming his onslaught to prevent the knight from conjuring any of his more offense-oriented magic.

Eventually, Qrow gained the upper hand as Bedivere stepped into a pothole and lost his footing.

 _His Semblance!_ he thought as he brought up his katana to deflect an incoming strike.

Qrow's attack was relentless and he did not allow the knight to regain his balance at all, eventually managing to trip him. The knight landed on his back. It was too late to get up. The scythe was already coming down on him.

Weiss let out a gasp, standing up, her hands clasped together. Qrow's scythe had made contact with Bedivere's body, but there was no blood.

"The hell?" Qrow said as he was forced back.

Bedivere slowly rose to his feet, pushing against the blade with his arm, around which had manifested his gauntlet.

"Heh, so you finally summoned your armor, huh?" Qrow said. "Ain't that cheating?"

"You're allowed to use your aura, are you not?" Bedivere said before summoning the entirety of his armor. "I think it's only fair that I call upon my own."

"What have I missed?" Hillphire said, walking into the half-wrecked dojo.

"Hey, Hillphire!" Ruby said. "We're just watching Bedivere and Uncle Qrow train!"

"Yes, I can see that," he said, sitting between Ruby and Jaune. "I could hear the racket from the courtyard."

Jaune stood up and squeezed himself between Ruby and Hillphire. "Yeah, well, you know how it is when the pros get started," he said.

"Of course," Hillphire said before reaching into his bag and pulling out a rose for Ruby.

"Oooh!" she said. "Thanks!"

He responded with a smile, to which Jaune rolled his eyes.

" _Teufelsatem_!" Bedivere cried out, hurling a fireball at Qrow, who deflected it with his aura-empowered scythe.

Qrow countered with another aura slash, but Bedivere dodged it, finally ascertaining the shape and size of each crescent.

"I knew you were good," Qrow said, "but man, this is great."

"I could say the same to you," Bedivere said as he reached for his claymore, which had been hanging on his back the whole time.

"I was wondering when you'd pull that big motherfucker out."

Bedivere grinned as he thrust his katana into the ground, drawing his great sword instead.

"Much better," Qrow said. "I think that katana was holding you back."

"Not at all," the knight replied. "As I said, I trained with a master samurai in the past."

"Yeah, I heard you the first, second, and third times. Still, though, my sword's way thicker than yours."

"You are making me blush."

Qrow laughed out loud. "Well, it's about time we had a proper sword fight with evenly matched swords."

"I wonder if he's going to use it," Hillphire mused. "Have you given it a name yet?"

"I haven't come up with one just yet," Bedivere said. "But if it ends up killing Qrow, then perhaps I will name it after him."

"Oh, you flatter me, sir knight," Qrow said, giving him a bow as he leaned against his scythe.

Weiss watched as Bedivere brought up his claymore. It was easily longer than she was tall. A smile formed on her face. With that full suit of armor on his body and that enormous sword in his hands, she could not help but think of the first time she had ever completed her summoning of her knight.

To think that such an insubstantial thing as a projection of a fallen enemy would one day transform into the man that was before her now. She never could have imagined such an absurd thing coming to pass. And yet there he was, stance as strong as ever, his face overflowing with valor. Bedivere noticed her out of the corner of his eye. She was smiling. That was all he needed for his strength to recover fully.

The knight vanished, this time too fast for Qrow to track. He swung where he could sense movement, but Bedivere was gone again.

"Dammit!" he said. "Where the hell did this speed come from?"

"From inspiration," Bedivere said, swinging his claymore with all of his strength.

Qrow managed to block the stroke, but there was so much power behind it that he slid back a good forty feet or so. He went on the offensive, but Bedivere's swings were incredibly fast, even with a sword that size.

"This doesn't make any fucking sense," Qrow said, continuing his attacks. "That sword is gigantic, and you're swinging it faster than your katana."

"It's because you don't have a lady in your life."

"The fuck does that have to do with—"

Bedivere managed to land a hit on his shoulder, sending him stumbling to the side. He looked up to see the point of the massive sword in his face. His aura was still fully intact, but he knew how to recognize checkmate when he saw it. Not that he couldn't fight his way through this, but he wanted to end the fight anyway. He was starting to sober up already, and that was not a good feeling.

"Yeah, whatever," Qrow said, nudging the sword out of the way with his finger before retracting his scythe back into sword form and stowing it away before walking out of the ring. "You owe me a new flask, by the way, you dick."

"To answer your question, Qrow," Bedivere said. "It has _everything_ to do with it."

Qrow stopped for a moment before shaking his head and continuing out of the training hall. "I'll be back in a bit. Gotta refill the tank! Weiss, your knight sucks, by the way."

She couldn't help but giggle to herself.

"Look at her," Yang whispered to Nora. "She's acting like a schoolgirl with a crush or something."

"I mean, technically she is a schoolgirl," Nora said, "with a crush on a knight. Right?"

"But we haven't even been in school for months."

"Yeah, but still. We technically never graduated, so..." She shrugged.

"All right," Bedivere said, approaching the group, who stretched as they stood up. Only Weiss had already been standing, having watched most of the fight on her feet.

"We breakin' off into pairs again?" Jaune asked.

"Yes," Bedivere said. "Hillphire, you're with me and Oscar. We'll be working on some of his technique and tactical considerations."

"Roger that," the blacksmith said.

"Everybody else, choose a partner."

Each one chose differently from yesterday. Weiss paired off with Hollie, walking slowly by Bedivere. He turned to look at her as she passed by.

"Were you impressed?" he asked her with a smile.

She thought about it for a little bit before answering with a playful, "No."

He chuckled.

"Aren't we the flirty one?" Hollie said to Weiss as they avoided a pothole on the way to the middle of the dojo.

Weiss shrugged with a grin.

"You're shrugging and grinning at the same time. Talk about mixed signals."

—

Weiss looked at herself in the mirror, straightening out her bangs and ponytail before making sure her Combat Skirt was in working order. She thought about changing outfits, but figured the usual dress would be fine.

"What's this?" Yang said, standing in her doorway. "You tryin'a look good for somebody?"

She smiled. "You know I always try to look good no matter what."

"Uh-huh. You and Ruby, I swear. How the hell do you fight in dresses all the time?"

Weiss giggled as she grabbed Myrtenaster before leaving with Yang.

"And what's with all this giggling?"

"Yang, you're reading way too much into it."

"Nah, I don't think so. You're just excited about your next match."

"So what if I am?"

"Nothin' wrong with it. Just remember that he ain't gonna take it easy on you."

"Oh, I certainly hope he doesn't."

"What the? Hold on, is our princess really talking all dirty right now?"

"Psh, you swear as if I just said I wanted him to spank me."

Yang stared at her with wide eyes.

"Umm, you did not hear that just now."

It was too late. Yang had already burst into laughter. "Oh, my, goodness. Holy shit. I need to tell Blake about this." She pulled out her scroll, but Weiss snatched it out of her hand and turned it off."

"Hey!" Yang said. "Gimme back my scroll!"

"Nope," Weiss said, pocketing it. "Not until you forget about what just happened."

She laughed again. "Holy crap, I can't get that image out of my head now. Is that why you wear a skirt all the time?"

Weiss turned bright red. "You are not getting your scroll back."

"Keep it. I'm-a get a new one and group message everybody about this."

"You wouldn't!"

"Yeah, you're right. This is something that needs to be discussed in person." She started in a jog to the training hall.

"Yang!" Weiss said, chasing after her. "I am gonna cut your hair! For real this time!"

Yang burst into the training hall, quickly making her way to Bedivere to hide behind him.

"What is the matter with you?" he asked her.

"Oh, nothing, just...wait for it."

"Yang!" Weiss said immediately coming to a halt as she stood face to face with Bedivere.

"Hello, Weiss," he said.

"Oh, hi, Bedivere," she replied. She eyed Yang, who was peeking from around him with a grin on her face. She held up her scroll, which she had somehow retrieved from Weiss.

"Are you ready for our match today?"

"Oh, yeah, I am ready."

"Good."

She watched as he walked to the middle of the room. The potholes from earlier had been fully repaired and they wouldn't have to worry so much about footing.

"Seriously," Jaune said to Hillphire, "your little repair bots are really something."

"I pride myself on their ability to make quick repairs," he said. "It's how my testing building keeps from falling apart."

Weiss joined her knight in the ring. Meanwhile, her audience was starting to become giddy, particularly Ruby, who was clenching both fists right in front of her chin.

"What are you so excited about?" Blake asked her.

"Cuz he said he's not gonna take it easy on her," Ruby whispered. "But we all know he's lying!"

"He says he treats us all as equals," Ren said. "But that's impossible, given who is squaring off with him right this moment."

"We all heard him," Nora said, leaning on Ren's shoulder. "She's the one thing that means more to him than anything."

Weiss sized him up and down. He was fully clad in that mystical armor of his, hand resting against his giant claymore, which was stuck in the ground. It was impossible not to see the parallels between this man and Arma Gigas.

"Are you ready?" he asked.

She nodded.

"Then, I leave the start of this duel to you."

Weiss brought up Myrtenaster, closing her eyes to concentrate, before stabbing it into the ground and creating a summoning glyph between her and Bedivere. Like clockwork, her old knight, that suit of armor which her father had sent against her as a test, emerged from the circle, its power tied directly to hers. Upon fully forming, it turned to face Bedivere, matching his pose as an equally enormous great sword appeared as well.

Bedivere couldn't stop the grin. He spotted Weiss behind Arma Gigas. She, too, was grinning. This battle would not be like any other duel, for he was battling not for his own glory, but for her.

"You wish to test my strength, my lady?" Bedivere said, bringing his claymore up. The suit of armor did the same.

"Think of this as a classic duel between you knights," Weiss said. "I'm sure you've done the same in your time, in your own world."

"I have. But do be warned. The victor of such duels usually wins the heart of the lady."

Ruby and Nora giggled together.

"He went there!" Yang said, elbowing Blake, who chuckled. "He friggin' went there!"

"Go!" Weiss commanded as Arma Gigas started off the duel, rushing at speeds that matched Bedivere's own.

Both knights vanished, reappearing high in the air, almost all the way up to the ceiling. They exchanged three sword strikes before falling back down to the earth, but Weiss had projected a glyph for her knight to use, sending him rocketing at Bedivere, who blocked the strike before countering with his own.

The two knights were evenly matched, even more so than the fight between Qrow and Bedivere. The previous duel of the day pitted a knight with extreme stamina and strength against a seasoned Huntsman with phenomenal speed and technique, but this fight between two knights had them both on par with one another in every way. Bedivere went for a low strike, which Arma Gigas deflected before countering with a high strike, which Bedivere parried and countered with a thrust that was countered again and over and again. It seemed the contest would have no end.

"It makes sense that they would be so evenly matched," Ren said. "Weiss technically is controlling her summon, right?"

"Not necessarily," Oscar said, listening intently to Ozpin's voice. "Depending on her level of skill with her summon, it could theoretically have some degree of autonomy. She would only have to act as its support."

"Which she's excelling at with all of those glyphs she's setting up for it," Sun said. "I mean, this might as well be two against one."

"Look at that guy," Qrow mumbled. "No special treatment my ass. He knows as well as anyone here that going after Weiss would make that thing disappear, but no, what does he do? He duels with it."

"Mister Qrow," Hollie said, "you simply do not understand matters of the heart."

"Psh. I know enough. It's just _that_ guy who prides himself on the whole tactical prowess bullshit he's been drilling into everybody since he got out of his coma."

"Wait, are you bitter about losing to him earlier?"

"Hell no. I had to let that guy win or he'd be sad all day long."

She giggled. "So I suppose we have three knights here."

"Uncle Qrow can be chivalrous if he tries," Ruby said, still crowding with Nora, their eyes fixed on the fight.

"Ugh!" Bedivere gasped as he missed a swing. The suit of armor vanished, emerging from a glyph behind him. He barely had the time to turn and block the swing.

Arma Gigas appeared through another glyph in another direction, continuing the omni-directional assault on Bedivere, who could only manage to deflect the summoned knight's attacks. The last strike was infused with explosive Dust and the blast sent Bedivere flying several yards away, his body carving a long gash in the hardwood before he came to rest face-up. A glyph was forming high above him.

A collective gasp came from Ruby, Nora, and Hollie, all of whom were crowding together now, their hands clasped as one as they eagerly watched Arma Gigas appear through the glyph and come down as hard as it could on top of Bedivere.

The explosion of fire, lightning, and ice created a plume that made it impossible to see what was going on and everybody was now on their feet. Even Weiss, who had granted full autonomy to her summon, was waiting with eyes wide open, both hands tightly gripping Myrtenaster.

The cloud of dust and debris cleared away, revealing Bedivere and Arma Gigas in an intense blade deadlock.

"Not yet," Bedivere said, gritting his teeth. "It's not over yet! Earth Rune! _Erdbeben_!"

A powerful shockwave threw Arma Gigas backward in Weiss's direction. It somersaulted several times, landing gracefully on both feet before holding its gigantic sword behind, ready for a heavy attack.

" _Gehärtete Verteidigung_! _Stahl Knöchel_!"

Bedivere's body was bathed in dark brown light as the powerful Earth Rune spells went into full effect, boosting both his defensive and offensive abilities. He assumed a stance identical to that of Arma Gigas, both knights ready for one final strike to finish the fight once and for all.

"I shall not lose!" Bedivere declared. "Not _this_ fight!"

Both knights let out a battle cry as they dashed at each other, each one swinging at the exact same time. The exchange was simple and elegant. Each knight had traded places after delivering the killing blow. Both maintained their poses for a moment and everyone in the room, especially Weiss, held their breaths.

After what felt like forever, the two knights finally moved. As though they were connected, Bedivere and Arma Gigas simultaneously stood up straight. After several seconds, the suit of armor glanced back at Bedivere and Weiss before dematerializing and vanishing completely. The building was still, even though Bedivere hadn't been wounded.

He looked at Weiss with a smile. She, too, was smiling.

"It would seem that I am the victor," he said quietly.

"It would seem so," Weiss said.

There were several seconds of silence in the hall. As usual, Ruby was the one to break it.

"That was _awesome_!" she yelled, jumping in the air.

"I wasn't worried," Sun said amid cheering. "Wasn't worried at all."

"Yeah, that's why you were clenching your fists so much, right?" Blake said with a chuckle.

Meanwhile, Weiss continued to gaze into her knight's eyes. He had defeated the old suit of armor, even though she had given it all of the power she had at her disposal. Though Arma Gigas put up a magnificent fight, the ultimate victor was Sir Bedivere of Kameloth.

"Did everything turn out as you'd hoped?" Bedivere asked her.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. "Perhaps," she said.

"I'm glad."

"So you _were_ holding back on me earlier," Qrow said, walking up to the pair.

"Not at all," Bedivere said, turning to him. "Your fighting style was different from that suit of armor. Its style was nearly identical to mine. It even adapted to every situation we were in."

"Of course. I mean, it was literally a projection of you. Or are you the projection from it? Shit, this makes my head hurt."

He chuckled. "Nevertheless, Weiss presented me with a challenge and I accepted it."

"Well, Lady Weiss, were you entertained?"

"I most certainly was," she said.

"Hah! You'd better be."

"I think this calls for a short break," Oscar said. "Well, Oz thinks so, and I agree."

"I'm surprised," Bedivere said. "Do you not wish to prepare for the coming battle?"

"Training is important, but so is resting and restoring one's strength. We don't want to have to face the White Fang while everyone's exhausted."

"True," Bedivere said.

"There's a festival going on in the city tomorrow," Hollie suggested. "Is everyone interested in doing that?"

"Sure," Blake said.

"Fine with me," Jaune said.

"If there are no objections," Oscar said, "then we should all go. Together. As not just comrades in arms, but as friends."

"I think that is a fine idea," Bedivere said.

"Festival?" Qrow said. "That means free drinks. Count me hella in."

"Wait, Uncle Qrow," Ruby said, "did you just say 'hella'?"

He chuckled. "You kids are all rubbin' off on me. Jeez."

"Hey, are you dressing up?" Sun asked Blake before turning to the rest of the group. "I think we should dress up."

"Dress up as what?" Nora asked.

He shrugged.

Jaune chuckled. "You're gonna suggest dressing up and you have no idea what to dress up as?"

"It was just a thought."

"Hey, who's cooking dinner tonight?" Ruby asked.

"Oooh!" Nora said. "Hollie can you make that Stoplight Chicken again?"

Hollie let out a heavy sigh and Yang laughed.

"Yeah," Yang said. "That shit was good."

"We're all out of chicken, though," Ren said.

"Anybody wanna make a chicken run with me?" Hillphire said.

"I'll go!" Ruby said, catching Jaune's attention.

"I'll help, too," Jaune said.

Nora gave Ren a light elbow and he grinned.


	23. Chapter XXIII

CHAPTER XXIII

 _Edle Reinheit_

"There's a lot of noise coming from the girl's bathroom," Sun said as he dried off his hair.

"Well, I mean, they are girls," Jaune said.

"Hey, Jaune, can you pass me my hairspray?" Ren said.

"Sure thing, best buddy," he said, tossing the can over to Ren. "Wait, what? You use hairspray?"

"He must," Bedivere said, standing in front of the mirror with Ren. "How else would he maintain such full volume?"

Ren and Bedivere fist-bumped.

"Seriously, do you hear all that giggling?" Sun said.

"I think I hear Blake, too," Jaune said. "Huh. I had no idea she talked so much. A lot has changed since school."

"Eh, she's still pretty quiet. I have to get on her nerves just so she'll talk sometimes."

Jaune chuckled. "You seem to like it when she pinches you and stuff."

"It's her way of showing me affection," he said, posing in the mirror.

"Nice abs," Bedivere said as he walked by.

"I'd slap your butt, but we barely know each other."

He stopped walking. "Speaking of which."

"No, you are not gonna do what I think you're thinking about doing."

"But I haven't even asked yet."

"I don't care! You are not grabbing my tail!"

"Well, I was not going to grab it. I only wished to ask permission to touch it."

"What the hell, dude?"

"I don't think there are Faunus where he comes from," Ren said.

"That's still so wrong! Do I go around asking if I can touch you in weird places?"

Bedivere shrugged. "If you asked, I would not mind."

"The hell, bro? Man, just, stay away from my tail!"

"Very well." He left the bathroom.

"Sheez, what the heck?"

Oscar stood in front of the mirror with them. "I think he's just trying to make friends with you."

"What a weird way to make friends!"

—

Yang was the first out of the girls' bathroom with nothing but a towel around her body and another one on her head to soak up all the water from her hair. She made a double take at Bedivere, who was walking from the boys' bathroom back to his room. He had nothing but a towel around his waist, his well defined back muscles glistening at her with all that leftover moisture on his body.

"Whatcha lookin' at?" Ruby whispered to her.

Yang jumped at her sister's voice before grabbing her by the hand. "C'mon!" she whispered. "And don't make a sound!"

"Okay!"

The two sisters, covered only with towels, snuck around the dorm halls, following after their resident knight.

"Ohh," Ruby said. "I see what you're trying to do!"

"Shh!" Yang said as they arrived at his door, which he had left completely open.

Both sisters peeked around the corner as Bedivere stepped over to his window, looking outside for a moment.

"What's he doing?" Ruby asked.

Yang shrugged.

Both ducked behind the wall as he turned around to close his door, but it was still cracked open, just enough for them to peek through.

"Hey, move!" Yang whispered.

"I wanna see, too!" Ruby whispered back.

"Well, you don't have to take up all the space! Lean over!"

They spied through the tiny opening as Bedivere dropped his towel and draped it over a nearby chair. Their eyes opened wide as they took in every inch of his lean, but incredibly athletic body. His pectoral muscles rippled as he reached into a drawer for a pair of boxers.

"Oh, c'mon, turn around!" Yang said quietly.

"What the hell are you two doing?" Blake said as she came upon the sisters, who instantly fell to the ground on top of each other.

"Nothing!" Ruby said, first to stand up.

"Yeah!" Yang said. "Just making sure there's, uh, no, uh, rats in the house!"

"Rats," Blake said.

"Rats!" Ruby said.

Blake rolled her eyes before stepping forward. "Whose room is this anyway?" she said as she slid the door open.

"Yaahh!" Bedivere yelped as he covered himself up with his hands.

"Ohmygod!" Blake jumped, slamming the door shut, leaning against it for a bit before turning to face the sisters. Yang was starry-eyed while Ruby had more of a shocked look on her face. "You have got to be kidding me."

"It was her idea!" Ruby shrieked, pointing at Yang.

"It was," Yang said, her voice light and airy. "And it was the best idea I've ever had."

"I dunno, your sister looks pretty traumatized," Blake said.

"I am!" Ruby said with a frown. "I mean, what? How? D-D-Did you s-see it? I-It was, it was...huge!" She gestured with her hands.

"I know," Yang said, swooning.

"Yang!" Blake and Ruby shouted at the same time.

A knock came from Bedivere's door. "If you three don't mind," he said, voice muffled through the wall, "the noise you're making out there is making me rather uncomfortable."

"Yeah, we, uh," Blake stammered, "we were just leaving!"

He opened the door. He looked from one face to the next. Yang was on cloud nine. Ruby was red as her cloak. Blake had her hand over her eyes.

"I'm dressed now," Bedivere said.

Blake peeked between her fingers, looking down and spotting a pair of boxers. She sighed in relief.

"I'm sorry my two friends are so stupid," she said.

"No harm done," he chuckled. He noticed the extra set of ears on top of her head. He'd spent a number of days with her around already, but this was the first time it started to grab his curiosity. He opened his mouth to speak to her about them, but with how Sun had reacted, he decided it was better not to bring it up.

"What's wrong?" she asked him.

"Nothing. Just...what brings three beautiful ladies to my room dressed only in towels?"

Blake reddened.

"Ohhh, you know what brought us to your room," Yang said, leaning toward him.

Blake held her arm out to keep her companion from falling right onto Bedivere. "We'll be going now." She dragged Yang away. The other one was still petrified. "Ruby."

"Oh!" she gasped. "Yeah, uh, see you later, Bedivere!"

He watched as Blake and Ruby dragged Yang away from him. He let out a quick chuckle before getting back into his room and locking the door behind him.

—

The entire group, including Qrow, met at the academy gate just as the sun began to rise. The festival wouldn't start for another hour, but many of the shops at the lower levels were already open by now and they wanted to do some exploring before the crowds swelled to unmanageable proportions.

Mostly everyone was dressed in the usual attire. It was only Oscar, Weiss, and Bedivere who were clothed differently. At least for the day, Oscar got out of his old clothes and donned a pair of blue jeans and a white t-shirt along with a pair of black shoes. It was a simple look, but he wasn't one to really flaunt anything at all. After all, he had come from a farm of all places.

Opposite of the simply dressed Oscar was Weiss, who wore a white and blue dress with an elegant white coat on top that had gold trim and buttons, the look topped off with white and blue heeled boots that stopped just below her knees in the back and went past them in the front. Unlike before, though, Bedivere wasn't matching her colors.

The resident knight was dressed nearly in all black, his pants, v-neck t-shirt, and boots all black along with a fancy black overcoat with gold buttons and trim. His black leather belt also had a gold buckle on it. Aside from the gold detailing, the only non-black items on his person were his new claymore, which hung from his back, and his new katana, which hid underneath his coat.

"You should pop up your collar," Qrow said to him. "You look like a putz with it down like that."

Bedivere did as he was told.

"There you go. Now all you're missing is a nice fedora. You really got that look down."

"Thank you," Bedivere said. "You're quite handsome yourself."

"Hey, you're gonna give people the wrong idea if you keep talking like that if you know what I mean."

They shared a chuckle.

"Okay, I'm gonna go ahead of you kids. Got some business to take care of."

"Uncle Qrow's no fun," Ruby said, frowning.

"You're the one always complaining about hangin' around with an old man all the time. Besides, I'll see you at the festival. I expect you all to be ready for that mallet challenge they got, all right?"

Ruby and Qrow fist-bumped before he split up from the rest of the group.

"So, what are we doing?" Jaune asked the group as they formed a circle in front of the academy's gates.

"Oh," Weiss said as she reached into her coat pocket. "Before we decide what we're doing, here."

Bedivere took the scroll she held out for him. "What is this?" he asked.

"A scroll. For you. Just in case you get separated from us."

"But I don't need this. I can sense where you are no matter what. All you'd need to do is focus on me."

She reddened. "That's not the point," she growled before sighing and calming herself back down. "Anyway, have you used one before?"

He looked at it, rotating it this way and that way, flipping it around. Ren reached over and pressed a button that turned it on.

"What manner of sorcery is this?" the knight said.

"It's technology, not magic," Ren said with a chuckle. "Here. You tap the screen over these icons to activate them. That's the 'call' icon, that one's the 'message' icon, and there's a bunch of other stuff you'll need to explore on your own. Those two are the important ones, though. Oh, and the contact list icon is there."

"I already inputted everybody's contact info for you," Weiss said.

"Yes, I see," Bedivere said, swiping through the list. He tapped one of them.

Weiss scroll began ringing. She sighed before looking at him sarcastically. He was smiling at her. "Okay, you don't have to call me, I'm standing right in front of you!"

He continued to hold his scroll, waiting for her to pick up.

"You're not gonna leave him hanging, are you?" Nora said.

"You mean, Yanging!" Yang said, making Ruby and Blake sigh.

Weiss continued to give Bedivere a dry look before begrudgingly reaching into her pocket and pulling out her scroll. "Hello?" she said loudly.

"Good morning, my lady," he said, his voice deep and cool.

Hearing him both in person and through the earpiece made a chill run down her spine. "Are you done playing around?" she said to him.

"You're supposed to say it into the microphone," Bedivere said into his scroll.

She closed her eyes, shaking her head before a smile forced its way onto her face. "Are you done playing around?" she said into her scroll.

"I am," he said, closing up the device.

The rest of the circle had been grinning throughout the exchange.

"So, what's our first stop?" Oscar asked.

"We're splitting up!" Nora said. "Girls and boys teams!"

"What?" Sun said.

"I think you can manage without me for a day," Blake said with a smirk.

"Look how eager she is to get rid of you," Jaune said.

"I know," Sun said. "We have an Ice Queen and a Shadow Princess."

"I kinda like the sound of that," Weiss said.

"I was gonna say the same," Blake said.

Weiss held out her arm. "Shall we, Shadow Princess?"

Blake hooked up arms with her. "Sure thing, Ice Queen."

Ruby waved to Jaune as she joined the two down the promenade.

"You, Mister Yummy Knight, I will catch later," Yang said, winking at Bedivere.

"Oh, dear gods," Hollie said as she and a giggling Nora dragged the blonde one away.

"Wait, what?" Sun said, turning to Bedivere.

"Yeah, what he said," Jaune added.

"The three of them saw me, well," Bedivere trailed off, scratching his head.

"As in, after the shower?" Ren said. "In your room?"

He nodded.

—

"What?" Weiss nearly screamed.

Yang sighed dreamily. "I was joking before when I said I was jealous of you," she said. "Now, I'm serious."

"Yang!" Ruby said. "Leave Weiss's knight alone!"

"Nuh-uh!"

Nora and Hollie giggled.

"It's about time we had a little drama around here," Nora said.

"Oh, because him nearly dying was not enough drama, huh?" Hollie said to her.

"Don't get me wrong, that was intense stuff. But this is, like, how Bedivere fought the other knight and took his place forever! You know?"

Hollie sighed heavily, clasping her hands together and looking up at the sky. "I know! Omigosh that fight was the best fight ever!"

"Seriously, though," Weiss said. "What happened to Team RWBY? You guys were spying on him and nobody considered calling me?"

Ruby, Nora, and Hollie gasped and then shrieked at the same time.

"Holy shit," Blake said, her mouth open. "Seriously, holy shit."

"Weiss," Yang said, sidling up to her. "Where is this coming from?"

"It sounds like some seriously repressed emotions," Hollie said.

"Very repressed," Nora said. "I mean, you were never exactly coy back in school, but this is taking it up to eleven!"

"You said it yourself," Weiss said, leading the way down the street. "I was never coy."

"You were never so vulgar either," Blake said.

"I blame my sister," Ruby said. "They spent too much time together in the woods."

"Hey, Hollie," Yang said, throwing an arm around her shoulder. "Let's go shopping for some boys!"

"Just you and me?" Hollie asked.

"Yeah! I mean, Weiss has her knight, Blake has her Monkey King, Nora's got Ren, and Ruby has three guys!"

"What do you mean 'three guys'?" Ruby yelled.

"Well, there's the blacksmith, there's your boy Jaune, and I'm pretty sure Oscar's been watching you a lot lately."

"Oh, yeah, I've noticed that," Nora said. "But, that's so weird. I mean, isn't Professor Ozpin still in there?"

"Yes!" Ruby said, reddening. "Which is why that's so weird! And he's...really young!"

"Maybe on the outside," Yang said, "but he's got that experience, you know what I'm sayin'?"

"Yang!" everybody else yelled at her.

"That's gross!" Weiss said.

"I mean," Hollie began, "I don't see what's wrong with older guys."

"Wait," Yang said, "hold on, okay, we need to talk about this, because this is news."

She chuckled. "I just don't see the problem with people dating with an age gap. I mean between Ruby and Oscar there's only two years, right? Cuz you're sixteen and he's fourteen."

"Well, I guess so," Ruby said, shrugging.

"Will's got three years over you. He's only a year older than Yang."

"Yeah," Yang said, "but that's just three years. If we're talking the guy inside Oscar's head, he's technically immortal, so he'd be, like, a million years old!"

"I think that's a bit of an exaggeration," Blake said.

"Just a little bit," Nora said.

"Still," Hollie said. "A guy with experience as opposed to a stupid boy who thinks with his other head?" She shrugged.

Yang stopped walking, taking her arm off of Hollie's shoulder. "Yang on a second. You don't have anybody specific in mind as you're saying this, are you?"

She shrugged again.

"As in, a certain other middle-aged man who's been living with us for the past month?"

Another shrug.

"Wait," Ruby said. "Uncle Qrow?"

"I can neither confirm nor deny these alligators at this time," Hollie said with a straight face.

Nora chuckled. "Did you say 'alligators'?"

"Mm-hmm."

"Can we move on from this topic already?" Blake said. "It's getting kinda weird."

"Kinda," Nora repeated. "Yeah, let's talk about food or something."

"You always talk about food," Weiss said.

"Oh, you're right, so let's talk about you and Bedivere instead!"

Weiss reddened before stomping away from the group, who chased after her.

—

"So you and Blake have been traveling together for some time now, hmm?" Bedivere asked Sun as they checked out a few stalls. The festival was going to start in fifteen minutes and the streets were already starting to fill with people, many of whom were from the surrounding villages and towns.

"Yeah," Sun said. "Honestly, though, she mostly just puts up with me."

"I don't believe that to be true."

He looked at him.

"It seems more like she relies on you."

"You really think so?"

"Yes. I haven't joined you on any of your excursions to win Faunus over to your side, but from what I have observed during our team training exercises, she seems to trust you as much as she trusts Team RWBY."

"I guess so."

They walked around for a little bit.

"You really think so?" Sun said.

"I once trained knights for war. Believe me when I say that I notice these things."

"Heh, yeah, I guess I can't deny that."

"Hey, check it out," Jaune said, pointing to a flower stall.

"Oh, good," Bedivere said, reaching into his pocket for some Lien as he approached the stall. "Good day, madam."

"Good morning to you, too, sir!" the cheery florist greeted him back.

"Would you happen to have..." He thought for a moment. "A red rose, a purple rose, a yellow rose, a pink rose, and a rainbow-colored rose?"

"Hmm, you are actually in luck because I have every single one of those," the florist said. "Rainbow roses aren't very common and it takes a very special process to grow them naturally, but I've got exactly one for you."

"Excellent," Bedivere said, browsing through the selection as the florist picked the nicest looking roses from her showcase. "Oh, you have that as well?" he said, pointing to a white flower hiding behind a number of others.

"Oh, yes, that is my only one, unfortunately," she said.

"Is it for sale?"

She looked at him for a bit before deciding. "For you, sure."

"Much obliged."

"I can't let it go for cheap, though. These are hard to come by."

"Yes, even in my homeland, these are exceptionally rare. Impossible to find, even. The price doesn't matter to me. She's worth every piece of gold."

The florist smiled as she prepared the flowers. "So, are these all for one girl? Because you've got one that stands out, and one that really stands out."

"Only the white one is for someone in particular. The rest are for friends."

"Friends, huh? You're a real sweet guy."

"A knight must do his best to be a gentleman."

"Oh, a knight? You mean, a genuine knight? Like from fairy tales?"

"I assure you, madam, that the man standing before you is no fairy tale."

She giggled. "Here are your flowers."

"And here is your Lien. Thank you very much."

"Oh, no, thank you. It's not every day I have a real deal knight come to my shop, you know."

He smiled at her before rejoining his group.

"Dude, who are all the flowers for?" Sun said.

"Oh, did you want one?" Bedivere asked.

"C'mon, man! First the tail thing and now you're gonna give me a flower?"

"I still haven't given up on your tail."

"All right, I'm staying over here," he said, putting some distance between himself and the knight.

"Seriously, though, who are the roses for?" Jaune asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Ren said. "Look at the colors. They all match the girls in our group. Well, except that rainbow one. Whose is that anyway?"

"I overheard the girls talking about their favorite colors the other night," Bedivere said. "Hollie's favorite is rainbow."

"Rainbow isn't a color," Oscar said dryly.

"Funny because that's what the other girls kept telling her."

"Man, aren't you the player," Jaune said.

"Please do not think of me in such barbaric terms. I am merely doing the gentlemanly thing."

"Yeah, sure," Sun said, "See, the other girls, I can understand, but Yang and Hollie are both single. You're gonna be givin' off some mixed signals if you give flowers to all of them."

"I don't know about that," Ren said, spotting the only flower among the bunch that was not a rose. "It's pretty obvious who's the special one."

They all looked at the white flower, which was unlike anything they'd ever seen.

"What is that anyway?" Jaune asked.

"It's a rare and special one, apparently," Sun said. "I'm guessing that's for Weiss?"

"I think that goes without saying," Oscar said.

"You know, you look pretty good in jeans and a t-shirt."

"Thanks. You look good without your abs showing all the time."

"Hey, I like the fresh air. It's so weird being in such restricting clothing. How the heck do you guys do it? Especially the knight. That's crazy."

They walked as a group to the grounds where the festival would take place. The girls were already at the entrance, waiting for the booths and stands to open up. Bedivere was the first to join them, handing roses to Ruby and Yang, who were in conversation.

"Red for Ruby," he said, "and gold for the elder sister."

Ruby snickered as she accepted the rose from him before sniffing it. Yang also sniffed hers before giving him a grin.

"I thank you for the yellow rose, sir knight," Yang said, mimicking his English accent.

He gave her a small bow and she winked at him. He walked over to Blake, Hollie, and Nora, who were talking about food.

"A violet rose for Blake," he said, handing the roses out, "a pink one for Nora, and a rainbow rose for our resident muse."

Hollie gasped as he handed the rose to her. "How the hell did you know my favorite color?"

"I am a knight. 'Tis my duty to know such things."

Nora giggled. "Did Ren put you up to this?"

"Why, yes, most certainly."

She sniffed the rose before skipping over to Ren.

"You didn't forget about a certain someone, did you?" Blake asked him as she pinned the rose to her jacket collar, which matched the flower in color.

"I could never forget about her," Bedivere said, turning to Weiss, who had been watching from a distance.

"You guys seriously gotta take some notes," Nora said to the boys as they joined up with the other half of the group.

"Yeah, yeah," Sun sighed, which Blake heard. "Oh, uh, I meant 'yeah' as in I agree!"

She rolled her eyes.

"Was that a cold shoulder or what?" Ruby said to Yang, who snickered.

"Good day," Bedivere said to Weiss with a bow.

"Good day," she greeted back with a curtsey.

"Unfortunately they did not have any white roses. However, I was able to procure something better."

He reached into his coat and pulled out the white flower. She held it in her hand, examining the golden center and the fuzzy white petals. She sniffed the flower. It had a soft, powdery scent to it.

"I've never seen this before," she said. "What is it?"

"In my homeland, it is called Edelweiss," he said. "Its name means 'nobility' and 'purity'. It only grows in cold, mountainous regions, but is exceedingly difficult to procure as it grows in the harshest of environments."

She smiled, admiring the flower. "It's pretty."

"Do you like it?"

She nodded, sniffing it again before tucking it in her hair on the left, opposite of her ponytail.

"Okay, let's go!" Nora said, leading the way to the festival grounds, which was just about to get started.


	24. Chapter XXIV

CHAPTER XXIV

 _Halte Dich An Den Hoffnung_

Mistral's festival was loud and filled with people and music and all sorts of vendors and merchants. Most common, though, were food booths and games. The group had split up into smaller groups, with Team RWBY together and Jaune with Ren and Nora while Bedivere, Sun, Oscar, and Hollie formed their own quartet.

"I'm surprised you're not following Blake around," Hollie said to Sun, who grabbed a piece of fruit from a stand, which Bedivere paid for immediately afterward. "And you gotta stop doing that."

"Hey," Sun said, chewing on the fruit. "Our resident knight offers to pay for everything I take. So I'm-a take and he can pay."

"You know, I'm starting to see why Blake gets so exasperated with you," Oscar said.

He coughed. "You don't actually mean that, dude."

"Keep up your antics and you'll end up pushing her away, you know."

He looked at the fruit in his hand before offering it to Bedivere, who accepted it and took a bite.

"Mmm, this is sweet," Bedivere said.

"Cuz it was touched by the hands of the Monkey King," Sun said, beaming.

"Of course, your majesty."

"Oh, dear gods," Hollie said, rolling her eyes. "Why did I pick you two to hang out with?"

"Who could resist a king and his knight?" Sun said, posing with Bedivere. The sun seemed to glisten off their hair.

Hollie let out a sigh before pushing through them.

"Oh, just a minute," Bedivere said as he walked over to a booth.

The other three watched as he pulled something out of his coat pocket.

"What do you think he's trying to get?" Oscar said.

Hollie shrugged. "That's a photo booth, isn't it? Too bad Blake's not here."

"Wanna get one together?" Sun asked Hollie.

"You sure Blake's not gonna get all jealous?"

"Eh, it's just a picture between friends, right?"

"I just don't wanna get cursed. You know a cat's curse lasts seven generations, don't you?"

"Huh? According to who?"

"Some of Mistral's mythology," Oscar said. "You don't know about the cat's curse?"

"First time I've heard of it."

"Oh, right, you're from Vacuo."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"All right, shall we continue?" Bedivere said, rejoining the three.

"Hang on, let's all get a picture at that booth together," Sun said.

Bedivere looked at Hollie and Oscar, who shrugged, before they all followed him to the booth.

—

"Another bull's-eye!" Ruby cheered as she gained the top score at the air rifle booth.

"You're lucky you get practice all the time with your scythe," Yang said.

She deployed Crescent Rose, hugging and caressing it. "It's okay, don't let her hurt your feelings."

Weiss looked up at the scoreboard and hung her head in shame. She had the lowest score of the four.

"Don't be sad," Blake said. "Look who scored one point above you."

It was Yang. The two shared a chuckle.

"You almost beat Ruby," Weiss said.

"Yeah, but she does use a rifle every day, like Yang said."

Ruby jumped up and down as the clerk handed her the grand prize, an enormous stuffed Ursa.

"Very cute," Blake said.

"Isn't it?" Ruby yelled.

"Dammit, I want one now," Yang said.

The four walked over to another booth, also a game. This one was a spear throwing contest. At the very back were targets with scores that varied depending on how close to the center the spear struck. In the space between the thrower and the targets were a number of hoops that moved left and right, each one adding ten points to the overall score. The highest possible scores could be attained by throwing the spear through hoops as they lined up and nailing the target at the back wall.

"Oooh, this looks tough!" Yang said.

"You guys ready to do this?" Blake said.

"You bet!" Ruby cheered. "I'm gonna win another cute stuffed Grimm!"

Team RWBY lined up at the counter. Each one had only three spears, three chances at attaining the highest score possible. Only the top score out of the three attempts would be recorded. Ruby went first, hitting a twenty-four with her first spear, missing altogether with the next, and nailing the bull's-eye on the target with her last spear, earning her fifty points. With one ten-point ring in addition to the rear target, her score was at sixty points altogether.

"Yes!" she cheered, jumping up and down.

"My turn," Yang said. Her final score was only one point shy of Ruby's. She growled. "Stupid range attack bull crap. Just wait until we get to the punching games. I'm-a beat you good."

Ruby stuck her tongue out at her sister.

Weiss was next up. This wasn't the usual weapon, but she could manage it somehow. Her first throw missed her targets completely, but it was okay. This was the calibration throw. The second spear soared straight to her target, hitting the second ring from the center for forty points, but with no bonus points from the moving hoops. This was it, her final shot at topping Ruby's score. She let the spear fly, getting it through two rings and then the innermost ring for forty-nine points. With the ring bonuses, her final score was sixty-nine points, topping Ruby's by nine. She held up a fist in victory.

"Cheater," Ruby said with a frown.

"Sore loser," Yang said, to which Weiss chuckled.

It was Blake's turn. She only needed to manage a score of seventy to beat Weiss and get the stuffed doll of her choice. Still, that was a lot of points to rack up. Her first spear toss jumped through four hoops, but hit the outermost ring for only ten points. The second spear nailed the innermost ring, but only got through two hoops, tying her score with Weiss's.

Ruby and Yang huddled together as they watched Blake prepare for her final spear toss. She glanced up in the prizes before letting the spear fly. The other three watched in disbelief as the spear soared through five rings in a row before striking the bull's-eye, earning her the highest score possible, a full one hundred.

"Oh, wow!" the clerk said. "That's the first one hundred of the day!"

"Perfect form," Weiss said, giving Blake a high five.

"Which prize do you want?"

"That one," Blake said, pointing to a giant stuffed monkey, which the clerk retrieved for her.

"Here ya go! Enjoy the festival!"

Ruby and Weiss giggled together, watching as Blake smiled while she hugged the giant stuffed animal.

"Remind you of somebody?" Yang said, grinning.

"Mind your own business," Blake said sharply before leading the way back to the promenade.

—

Jaune looked around aimlessly while Ren listened to Nora's incessant chatter. He would give the occasional nod here and there with a few verbal responses, but ninety-nine percent of the "conversation" was her talking about everything she could possibly talk about and more. Even still, Ren would have it no other way. Others might have found the situation annoying or perhaps even draining, but not him. It had been like this for as long as he could remember. He would much rather Nora keep talking and being happy and energetic than the scared little girl he had met so many years before.

Fighting the Nuckelavee Grimm together not too long ago took him back to those days, when it was just him and Nora fending for themselves, just the two of them against the world. He had sworn long ago that he would never allow her to be that lonely, frightened girl she was back then. He would do everything in his power to keep that from happening.

Nora was mid-sentence when Ren reached up with his hand, softly poking her on the nose. She blinked several times before looking up at him.

"Boop," he said quietly.

She stared at him for a little bit before bursting into giggles. He couldn't help but laugh with her as well.

"Let's get some potato strings," he said.

"Yes! Let's!" she said, skipping ahead of him.

Meanwhile, Jaune watched as his two best friends had the time of their lives. He smiled to himself, remembering a certain someone who he would have loved to take to this festival today. He looked up at the sky. Perhaps she was up there, somewhere, looking down at him now. Of course, she'd tell him to stop stifling himself like this, that he still had so much to live for. Still, he couldn't stop the small tear from forming in his eye.

"Are you thinking about her again?" a voice said from behind.

Jaune turned around to face Bedivere, who had been watching their group for a while now.

"How long have you been there?" Jaune asked him.

"Not too long," Bedivere said. "Well, long enough to have witnessed Ren silence Nora with nothing more than a finger."

Jaune chuckled. "Yeah, that was great."

"Walk with me."

They strolled through the promenade together, looking left and right at the many booths all around them. The streets were packed with people.

"None of them have any idea what's coming," Jaune said.

"It's better that way," Bedivere said. "There is no reason to cause panic among them. It is up to knights like you and I to ensure that the people have the chance to live their lives free of worry and free of sorrow."

"But we're not allowed that luxury, are we?"

"That is a sacrifice we have made when we took that mantle upon us. As my squire, you, too, will have to learn to live with the choices you make."

"Yeah, I figured that." He stopped walking for a second, facing the knight. They stood equal in height. "Hey, Bedivere."

"Yes? What is it?"

"You're a really strong knight and all that, aren't you?"

"That all depends on what you mean by 'strong'."

"Well, you've never lost a battle, have you?"

Bedivere hesitated. "That is an incorrect assumption."

Jaune looked at the ground. "It's just...I can't help but think, that if I'd been stronger, then maybe—"

"Maybe you could have done something for her."

He looked the knight in the eye.

"If you are asking if I have regrets," Bedivere said, taking a step away before turning back to him, "the answer is yes, I most certainly do. There are times in my tenure as a Knight of Kameloth when I wish I had more strength, that I had done things differently, that if I only had certain powers at my disposal perhaps my king would still be alive."

Jaune looked down, catching a glimpse of his sword, which glistened in the sunlight. Part of Pyrrha was now a part of this sword. In a way, he would never be without her. But it didn't change the fact that she was truly gone.

"Jaune, do you believe in destiny?"

He looked at the knight.

"There was a time when I had my doubts as well," Bedivere continued. "That it was my mistakes that caused the deaths of people I cared about. And then I came to understand that some things are just not meant to be, while others are. I cannot claim to know what the purpose was for her passing, but what would she tell you if she were here now?"

Jaune opened his mouth to speak, but a tiny whimper came out as his eyes flooded. "She'd tell me," he managed, "to never stop moving." He sighed heavily. "She'd also tell me to work on my swing, my footwork, and all that stuff."

"On which you have improved. Considerably."

"You're just trying to make me feel better."

Without another word, Bedivere swiftly reached into his coat, drawing his katana and swinging it full force at Jaune, who responded with raw instinct, drawing his own sword and parrying before countering and ending up in a blade deadlock with Bedivere. Both swords, having been infused with earth and gravity Dust, withstood the amount of force put behind them.

"Do you believe me now?" Bedivere said with a smile.

The warrior's fury on Jaune's face disappeared. "Huh?" he said.

Bedivere backed away before re-sheathing his katana. "I did not hold back with that strike. Not only did your sword withstand the attack, so did your body. If you have not improved, explain to me what just happened."

Jaune stared at his sword, that weapon infused with some of Pyrrha's essence. It was true. He didn't even think about that encounter just now. Everything happened as naturally as water flows through a river, swiftly and with great force.

"Sheathe your sword before the crowd gets too excited," Bedivere chuckled.

Jaune looked around at the forming crowd, who looked eager for another exchange. Reddening slightly, he returned his sword to its scabbard before joining the knight.

"You know, I've been meaning to ask you something," he said, still breathing hard from that spike in adrenaline just now.

"What is it?" Bedivere said, leading the way down the promenade.

"Why did you have Hillphire forge you a katana? I mean, you've got that claymore on your back, too, so why two swords?"

"The pragmatic explanation is that the claymore is my primary weapon, large enough to take on anything our enemy has to throw at us. The katana is my secondary weapon. Hillphire forged it to be nigh-unbreakable and will remain reliable even after this claymore has failed. However, if you want the true reason I chose a katana over a knightly sword, it is because, as a Knight of Kameloth, I was part of the expedition to bridge the gap between Albion and the Far East. During this expedition, I submitted myself to a master from the East, learning everything I could under him.

"This ultimately led to my embracing of everything about them, from their style of fighting down to their very culture. Indeed, my first day setting foot here in Mistral brought me back to those days. This katana I wear underneath my coat is my way of honoring the brotherhood I had helped establish in my own world, and my way of establishing my own brotherhood with the people of Mistral."

"That makes sense," Jaune said. "It's still so weird watching you hold that thing while your knightly armor is on your body, though."

Bedivere chuckled. "Yes, I suppose it would be."

—

It was lunch when the whole group reconvened, including Qrow. The day was spent in laughter and conversation, much of it in reminiscence of their time at Beacon Academy. Qrow spent most of the time off to the side, keeping his distance from the group. Bedivere made his way to him.

"Unless you're giving me a replacement for the flask you destroyed," Qrow began, "you can go right back to the rest of the group.

"Interesting you say that," Bedivere said, reaching into his coat and pulling out a flask for him.

"What the fuck?" Qrow said before chuckling. "You've gotta be kidding me."

"I take my debts seriously."

"Holy fuck, man." He read the inscription on the stainless steel alcohol container. "'Best Uncle Ever.' Hah!"

"I've also taken the liberty of filling it up for you."

"Oh, you did, huh?"

He reached into his coat again, pulling out a bottle of alcohol, which had already been partially emptied.

"Jeez, how many pockets you got under there?"

"What do you think of finishing the rest of this with me?" Bedivere asked, handing him the bottle.

"Oh, hell yeah. You don't say no to free liquor." He examined the crystal. It was a particularly expensive, high-grade bottle of whiskey. "Where the hell did you find 38-Year-Old Valor Whiskey, huh?"

"Up the road. They also sold engraved flasks."

"Hah!" He unscrewed the cap, taking a sniff of the liquor. "Liquid friggin' gold. You, my friend, are a true gentleman."

Bedivere reached into his coat yet again, procuring two glasses and setting them down on a nearby high table.

"I'm not even gonna ask anymore! Keep it comin' with that magic jacket of yours!"

Qrow poured the amber-colored liquid into the two glasses before setting the bottle down on the table.

"Cheers," Qrow said, raising his glass.

"To good fortune," Bedivere said.

Qrow chuckled a bit before downing the entire glass. "Whoa, that's the smoothest liquor I've ever had."

"It has a good flavor profile to it as well," Bedivere said, carefully sipping the whiskey. "Does it taste sweet to you?"

"Hell if I know. I just know it's good."

Bedivere drank the rest of his glass before refilling both. "Am I correct in my presumption that you were merely keeping your distance because of your Semblance?"

"Yep," Qrow said. "Can't afford to have the kids get hurt cuz of a bad luck charm."

"Are you sure you are truly a bringer of misfortune? You've already spent a number of days with them and nothing has happened yet."

"Don't jinx it, dumbass. Just because it hasn't happened yet doesn't mean it won't."

"It does not mean that it will either."

"Bad things happen around me. It's the way things are."

"I don't believe that. There are things that are meant to be, and I do not believe this is one of them."

"Heh, you're pretty optimistic for a guy who discarded his king's sword because he felt he wasn't worthy of it."

Bedivere flinched, spilling some of his drink.

"I didn't mean that. But there, now you have proof. Keep your distance if you value your good luck."

"There is a difference between destiny and luck. I do not believe in the latter."

"Kid, after you've been around long enough, you'll learn that optimism isn't something that works in the world."

Bedivere smiled to himself. Qrow spoke the truth. But there was still something worth looking forward to in life, something to enable him to keep on living. Perhaps it was that fateful summon on that fateful day that kept him from plunging headfirst into the abyss of absolute despair. He set his glass down on the table, reaching into his coat pocket as he approached the group. Qrow watched as he went behind Weiss, who didn't seem to notice him. He chuckled to himself before taking another swig from his glass.

One by one, the girls talking with Weiss stopped, looking past her to her knight. She was the last to notice the drop in conversation.

"What?" she said before following their gaze, startled by him standing behind her. "Could you tell me next time before you sneak up on me like that?"

He chuckled. "Turn back around," he said.

"Huh?"

He gestured with his head and she did as he asked. He reached over her with something in his hand. A necklace. She smiled, moving her ponytail out of the way so he could clasp the chain together in the back. She took the oval-shaped pendant in her hand. It was made of silver, with a red black opal embedded in one side and a blue black opal on the other.

"Oh, it's a locket!" she said, opening it up and looking at a strangely familiar picture framed within.

It was the exact same picture that young boy had taken of her and Bedivere on their first day together, a shot from their right, a perfect profile picture of the two of them gazing outward together. She spent some time admiring the small picture when she came to a realization. She reached into her coat pocket. The photograph that she had kept so close to her heart every day was missing.

"Hey!" she said, turning to Bedivere. He was holding the photograph out for her.

"I had it laminated as well," he said as she took it.

"Wait, when did you take this from me?"

"This morning. Before you woke."

"So, that's what he was doing," Sun said to Oscar.

"Yeah," Oscar said. "He did look pretty suspicious at that photography place."

"Do you like it?" Bedivere asked Weiss.

She smiled, flipping the locket around so the red opal was facing out.

"Oh!" Ruby said, distracted by something in the background. "Hey! Look who it is!"

They all turned in the same direction, spotting Hillphire getting some food at a booth. Ruby and Yang went to him.

"Are you not going to go after her?" Bedivere asked Jaune, who walked with him to Qrow.

"She's free to do what she wants," Jaune said, setting a plastic cup on the table next to Bedivere and Qrow's glasses.

"That won't do," Bedivere said as he reached into his coat, pulling out another glass.

Qrow started laughing uncontrollably. "I can't," he said. "I just can't. I'm dead. Jeez. Oh, I love you, man."

Jaune raised an eyebrow at him as the knight poured him a glass. He had a taste of the liquor. It was strong, but pleasant to the palate.

"You won't be able to afford another bottle of this shit, kid," Qrow said. "So enjoy it while it lasts."

"I was gonna ask what it was," he said. "Cuz I've never tasted alcohol this good."

"Oh, so you're a connoisseur, huh?"

"A what?"

"The question, Jaune," Bedivere said as he took a sip of his drink, "is whether or not you actually love her."

Jaune stiffened up as his face flushed.

"I take that as a yes," Qrow said, chuckling as he drank. "Hey, kid. Just so you know. I approve of you."

"Wh-What?" he said.

"You heard me." He poured him another glass. "Just don't do anything funny or I'm gonna slice off your junk."

Jaune swallowed hard.

"I'm just kidding. Just don't break her heart."

"I would never do anything like that. That's kinda why I'm keeping my distance, I guess. Like, I want _her_ to be the one to pick, you know?"

"Try not to wait too long, though," Bedivere said.

"I'm not waiting. I'm just trusting in her. And, I guess, in destiny. If it's supposed to be me and her, then cool. If not, then..."

"Then, you still have me. A squire's oath to his knight is unbreakable, after all."

"Heh, yeah."

"I respect you even more now," Qrow said.

"That means a lot, Uncle Qrow."

Qrow's eyes narrowed. "You're pushin' it, kid."

"Y-Yeah, that just, s-sorta came out on its own."

He laughed, giving him a playful punch on the shoulder. "I'm just bustin' your balls, man. Quit bein' such a stiff like this knight!"

Meanwhile, Ruby and Yang had dragged Hillphire to the group. He mingled with the others, including Oscar, who was showing off his cane to the blacksmith.

"Kid," Qrow said to Jaune. "Why don't you go back there, huh? Leave the old men to do old man stuff."

"Shouldn't Oscar be among us, then?" Bedivere said as he drank.

Qrow laughed. "I guess that depends on who's in the driver's seat at the moment, huh?"

—

It was late in the afternoon when the group gathered together again for the final concert of the day. No one was on the stage yet, but they all waited patiently, having forced their way to the front at Yang's urging. Bedivere stood at the very back of the group, keeping an eye out for all of them as he always did. He caught a glimpse of Blake's cat ears. There were a number of near-incidents where she, Sun, and Hollie had to defend themselves against those who clearly hated the Faunus, the incident with the White Fang and Beacon Academy only increasing such tensions.

Bedivere remembered those days in his own homeland, the constant ostracism and outright racism toward people of his kind, those blessed with the gift of magic. For a time, he believed it to be a curse, but eventually he came to embrace his gift and used it for the betterment of his fellow man, no matter how those same people treated him. Those long years and all that hard work had paid off. Ultimately, he had paved the way for magic to once again be embraced throughout the land and the world flourished because of his efforts.

He saw Blake's ears again. What was it about those ears? Why was it that he was filled with the sudden urge to touch them?

"I love that you won that thing," Nora said to Blake, poking her giant stuffed monkey.

"Hey, don't poke my monkey," Blake said, pulling it away from her.

Weiss poked it as well and Blake pulled it to the other side again.

"No fair!" Yang said. "I want a stuffed Grimm!"

"This is _not_ a Grimm!" Blake said.

"Mine is," Ruby said, hugging her giant stuffed Ursa.

"Are you guys ready for our last concert?" the emcee asked the crowd, which responded with a roar. "So am I! Without further ado, I'd like to introduce the most angelic voice you will ever hear. Rumor has it that the sound alone will change your entire life, so get ready and put your hands together for our guest, Miss Hollie Lyon!"

Every single one of the group turned to Hollie, who smiled at them sheepishly before proceeding up the stage with her guitar in hand.

"Wait, did I miss something?" Yang said, scratching her head.

"I mean, I know she sings," Nora said.

"But, like, concert singing?" Ruby said.

"Yeah!" Sun cheered. "Go, Hollie!"

Blake looked at him.

"What? C'mon, you gotta cheer her on, too!"

"How's everybody doing today?" Hollie greeted the crowd, who cheered back at her. "All right, now a lot of these songs you already know, so sing 'em with me, okay?"

On cue, the entire crowd sang along with each song that Hollie brought to the stage, but none of them stood out as much as the final song of the lineup. Although her Semblance was most practical on the battlefield, even in times of peace it had a similar effect on her audience, bringing them hope and the courage to move on.

"This one's actually pretty special to me, and probably to my friends, too," Hollie said as she hit a number of pedals, playing some of the starting chords to the upcoming song. "I know it's the last song of the day, but we're not going out with a fizzle, are we? That's right, we're ending the day with a bang!"

She started the riff, turning to the rest of the band as the song exploded into melody. Though the rest of the population certainly could relate to her song, only the group up at the front in the middle truly understood the meaning behind the depths of the music and the accompanying lyrics.

 _It used to feel like a fairy tale_

 _Now it seems we were just pretending_

 _We'd fix our world_

 _Then on our way to a happy ending_

 _Then it turned out life_

 _Was far less like a bedtime story_

 _Than a tragedy_

 _With no big reveal of the hero's glory_

 _And it seems we weren't prepared_

 _For a game that wasn't fair_

 _Do we just go home?_

 _Can we follow through?_

 _When all hope is gone_

 _There is one thing we can do_

While the rest of the audience danced and sang along with Hollie, there was a handful among them who could not help but absorb every single word that came from her mouth. Nevertheless, some of them allowed the spirit shared by the crowd to sweep them up as well. Ruby grabbed Jaune, Hillphire, and Oscar, dragging all of them to her team along with Ren and Nora as they all danced together, singing along with Hollie. Only Qrow and Bedivere were segregated from the group, having slipped away to the side of the crowd.

"Let's just live!" the entire crowd came alive as the chorus hit.

 _Day by day and not be conquered by our sorrows_

 _The past can't hold us down_

 _We must break free_

 _Inside we're torn apart_

 _But time will mend our hearts_

 _Move onward not there yet_

 _So let's just live!_

"So, what are you doing all the way here instead of hanging out with the rest of them?" Qrow said, pouring Bedivere another glass.

"Just trying to find my happy place again," Bedivere said, referencing the lyrics Hollie was now singing.

"There's actually such thing, huh?"

"I try my best not to forget it exists. But it's too often that all we see ahead is darkness."

"Heh, I know the feeling." He drank from his glass. "Damn it, now you're starting to talk like me."

"No, you've just reminded me that I can never let my guard down, that the longer I am around, I am bound to see all of the bad again, that it's never merely behind me."

Qrow sighed. "The hell have you gone through to talk this way? I'm guessing you and Ozpin had a little chitchat about this, too, that one day, huh?"

"We did."

"So, then, what, are you immortal, too?"

"Not quite."

"Well, you sure as hell act a lot older than me and Oz. Don't think I haven't seen through that stupid chivalrous act of yours. You're just using that to cover up something inside."

"And what if I am? If I focused solely on the darkness, I wouldn't get anything meaningful done."

"And while you're saying those words, you just can't look away from all your shortcomings."

Bedivere flinched.

"Heh, Jaune's a perfect squire for you. Both of you are always beating yourselves up for your failures. Although, him, I understand. It's gotta be tough on a kid his age to feel like he lost the love of his life cuz he wasn't strong enough to protect her. You, though, I can't figure you out. What the hell did you go through back on your world that makes you stare off into the distance sometimes? You know what I'm talkin' about. That thousand-yard stare you do. Like, you're not looking at us, but through us."

"It's nothing I can't handle," Bedivere said, taking a swig.

"Bullshit. Whatever, it's your life, dude." He paused. "No, that's not true. You should really get your shit together because it's not just your life anymore. You're living for another person now, too, not to mention all those kids out there you've vowed to protect."

Bedivere looked down at the amber liquid in his glass. Both men looked up toward the stage as Hollie's song quieted down, reaching the most emotional segment of the lyrics. She turned off the distortion on her guitar and began plucking.

 _When it feels like there's nothing_

 _Worth living for_

 _Everything is broken_

 _The light's not there anymore_

 _And the story_

 _Takes an unexpected turn_

 _A friend is suddenly gone_

 _We can cry our lives away_

 _But if they were here they'd say_

 _Go forward, you must keep moving on_

Weiss looked around for Bedivere, spotting him at the edge of the crowd, far away from where she and the rest of the group were standing. Though such a vast space separated them, she couldn't help but feel something floating through the ether from him to her. Maybe it was nothing more than the effect of Hollie's song, but she could swear there was an unbearable weight on his shoulders.

Ruby took her hand, linking her with the rest of the group. They all formed a human chain, uniting with the rest of the crowd. Thousands of people sang in unison now, as though a single voice echoed throughout all of Mistral. They were not yet ready to give up hope. They would continue to press onward, no matter what the future had in store for them.

Bedivere spotted Weiss among the crowd. She was quite the outstanding woman, after all. It wasn't just her appearance, but everything else about her. He closed his eyes, allowing his Connection Semblance to go to work. At least for a moment, their hearts were perfectly aligned and he could feel the hope in her.

 _That's right_ , he thought to himself. _Never let that light fade. Even if the darkness should overcome the world, be the light that shines through it all._


	25. Chapter XXV

CHAPTER XXV

 _Eiserne Jungfrau_

Weiss woke up to the bright sunlight hitting her face. She put her arm over her eyes, but the warmth wouldn't let her stay asleep. She got up, stretching as she passed by her mirror. Her silver hair was a mess and she grabbed a brush from her armoire. She was about to start brushing when a knock came from her door. She straightened up her nightgown before sliding her door open. It was Bedivere. He was holding a tray in his hands.

"Good morning," he greeted her.

"Breakfast?" she said.

He nodded. "Don't worry. You're not the only one missing. Literally only Ren and I were up this early, so we both cooked breakfast for everyone."

She smiled, walking back into her room to look at herself in the mirror. Bedivere set the tray down on the desk beside her bed before standing behind her. She looked at the two of them in the mirror. The first time they did this, they were in perfect synchronization. At least, on the outside. They had been color-coordinated that day, both dressed to impress. Right now, though, she was in her nightgown, her hair falling all over the place. His hair was also a mess. But the thing that stood out most to her was that he was in a black t-shirt again.

"What's with all the black nowadays?" she asked him.

"You don't like it?" he said, picking up her brush to go to work on her hair.

"It's not that. It's just, I mean, I guess I'm not used to it, that's all. It's such a depressing color."

"Perhaps I wish to exude a degree of mystery."

She chuckled. "You already are mysterious. You don't have to dress the part also."

He didn't respond, brushing her hair quietly as she watched in the mirror. His eyes caught hers and he stopped what he was doing. She turned around, looking up into his hazels. They stared at each other for some time before she found herself drifting toward him.

"You look perfect," he whispered to her.

"So do you," she whispered back as she tiptoed up to reach his face. She closed her eyes as her lips touched his, his hand lightly touching her cheek. It was just as she had expected, this bliss, this utter pinnacle of ecstasy.

"Weiss," he whispered her name.

"Yes," she whispered back as she leaned in to kiss him again.

"Weiss," he said more loudly.

"Weiss."

Weiss jolted from her reverie, looking around at a dozen faces. Bedivere was seated at the far end of the table, across from her.

"Huh?" she said.

"I was asking if you'd be okay with the arrangement we had agreed on earlier," he said.

"Arrangement?"

"Yeah," Yang said. "You know, Bedivere, Uncle Qrow, and Oscar are headed down to the forge to check up on things with Hillphire while the rest of us stay up here and train."

"Yeah, Team Junior Silent H against Team RWBY?" Nora said, to which Ren and Jaune sighed.

"Oh," Weiss said. "Right." She felt her face warming up. "Yeah, I'm okay with that. Why wouldn't I be?"

"We were wondering because you just spaced out all of a sudden," Blake said.

"I did?"

"Yeah," Ruby said. "And you were making noises, too."

"Huh?" Her face became even warmer.

"Anyway," Bedivere said, sensing the anxiety in her. "Yes, that is the plan. You will supervise the training while the three of us head to the forge."

"Wait, me?"

He nodded. "That is what we had agreed on."

She looked down at the table. _Crap, crap, crap,_ she thought.

"Hey, you don't look so good," Hollie said to her.

"We did burn a lot of energy yesterday," Oscar said. "I'm still feeling pretty tired myself."

"Sing her a song!" Jaune said to Hollie.

"Yeah, holy crap, that was awesome yesterday," Sun said.

"You really like her singing, don't you?" Blake said.

"Well, I mean she sings really good!"

"Yeah. She does."

"Uh oh," Yang said to Sun. "Looks like you're gonna get replaced with a stuffed doll."

"Hey!" Sun whined.

"Okay," Qrow said, standing up. "We've gotta get moving. Will's not gonna wait for us forever."

"See you guys later," Ruby said to the trio as they stood up.

"Oh," Qrow said, passing by Hollie's chair. "I heard the knight got you a rainbow rose."

"He did, why?" she said.

Without a word, he pulled out a rainbow colored carnation, handing it to her. Her eyes opened wide.

"How? What? When?" she stammered. "I have so many questions!"

"I heard from a little tin can that you liked rainbows and carnations."

She sniffed the flower before turning to them. Qrow and Bedivere left the dining room without a word. Oscar waved sheepishly to them.

"Hollie," Yang said, her mouth open. "You know, that stuff we were talking about yesterday, it was all joking, right?"

She shrugged, sniffing the flower again with a smile.

"Ohh, gross!" Ruby said, cringing.

"You know," Weiss said. "I agree with Hollie. What's wrong with an age gap?"

"Okay!" Blake said. "That's enough with the weird talk!"

"You know what I just realized," Sun said, playing with his pancakes. "I'm not included in any of the team matches."

"Maybe you should ask Hollie to sing you a song!" Blake yelled at him.

Everybody was leaning away from her, trying to distance themselves from her outburst, all except Hollie, who smiled as she continued to spin the flower between her fingers, sniffing it from time to time.

—

"Ah, you've arrived," Hillphire said.

"Tell me you've got good news," Qrow said.

"Very good. I am literally on the verge of reviving her."

"So, you were successful?" Bedivere said.

"We will find out."

Oscar listened to the voice in his head. "Hey, uh, Ozpin says we shouldn't be messing around with this kind of stuff."

"Wizard," Bedivere said, "know this. I, too, am more than familiar with the consequences of meddling with forbidden magic. The very Nexus which comprises my arm is a daily reminder of that. However, the greater crime would be for us to ignore that young girl's pleas for help."

"Yes, I agree," Oscar said.

They made their way to the vault, where only Hillphire and two closely trusted associates were allowed to enter.

"All right, gentlemen," the blacksmith said. "This is it."

Qrow and Oscar stood off to the side, looking around at all the incredibly advanced machinery and electronics scattered around the room. Only Bedivere walked up to the machine, which was now recognizable as something that somewhat resembled a person. It had been fully rebuilt, complete with clothing, hair, and a face. Only a few spots showed the metal machinery underneath.

Hillphire held his breath as he threw the primary lever, which sent power surging back into the machine's central power units. The Dust reactor in the very center hummed back to life as the machine's aura fully manifested, indicating a fully active soul.

The robot's eyes came back to life, the apertures serving as irises returning to focus. The first thing this girl with green eyes and fiery orange hair did was start sobbing. She tried to move her arms, but they were tied down. Just as she began to struggle, Bedivere was already by her side, tearing off the restraints with his hands. She turned to him, the first human being she had seen in what felt like an eternity trapped in the steel coffin of her own body. She began to cry.

"Worry not," Bedivere said to her, looking into her green eyes, "for you are free."

"You," she said. Her voice was tiny. "It was you. It was your voice I heard, your hand I felt."

"Indeed, it was I."

She jumped off of the repair bay and threw herself onto him, hiding within his arms as she sobbed into his chest. But since she was a machine, no tears came out. The feelings were entirely real, though, and Bedivere could sense them through her.

"You have Master Hillphire to thank," Bedivere said, gently stroking her hair. "He's the one who brought life back to you."

"I know," she said. "I heard his voice every day. I could feel his presence through every keystroke and every wrench and power drill."

"Thank goodness," Hillphire sighed heavily. An enormous weight seemed to slide off of him. He had succeeded in bringing life back to this girl, freeing her from her metal tomb. Still, his work was far from complete. He needed to find a way to grant her the peace of a final death, to no longer be trapped in that body a century from now. He was surprised when the robot girl ran to him, throwing her arms all over him as well.

"I'm sorry if I'm heavy," she said, sobbing into his chest.

"No, no, it's fine," he said. She really was heavy, though. After all, she was made of steel, not flesh.

"It's good to have you back, Penny," Qrow said. "How're you feeling?"

She closed her eyes, hanging on to Hillphire for a while.

"It's all right," Hillphire said. "Take your time. From what I've seen, you've been conscious all this time. If you feel you need to rest, take all the time you need."

She pulled away from him. "No, there is no time for rest," she said. "I heard everything you said about the White Fang's imminent attack on the city." She turned to Bedivere. "According to my scanners, your body contains an unknown phenomenon that cannot be called a soul in the same sense as what we of Remnant possess."

"Jeez," Qrow said. "It took Hillphire's machines a hell of a lot of time to scan his soul and shit. You take five seconds?"

"That is not accurate," she said. "When we made first contact several days ago, I created an imprint of his scan and I spent most of my time analyzing it. It allowed me to maintain some level of sanity as Master Hillphire worked on rebuilding my body. When you first connected me to your network, I took all of the necessary information from your databases and put together a complete picture of his waveform. You, Sir Bedivere, are an unknown phenomenon."

"Yes, that is quite accurate indeed," the knight said. "I gather you are feeling much better."

She looked down at the ground.

"This must all be overwhelming for you."

"A little bit," she said.

"You can spend as much time here as you need," Hillphire said. "I even have a testing facility where you can get accustomed to your new body."

"Yes," she said, turning to him. "I am detecting new systems integrated with my old systems. May I ask what they are?"

"Well, there's a lot of new weapons. And new armor. And Dust modules."

"Interesting." She looked at the ground before turning to the blacksmith again. "Master Hillphire, may I give you a hug again?"

"You don't even have to ask."

She nodded as she ran at him and gave him another embrace. He was ready for her momentum this time and managed to stay stable.

"Thank you," she whispered to him. "I thought I would be trapped forever."

"When we realized what your situation was," Hillphire began, "there was no other choice. None of us were going to allow you to stay in that prison forever."

"And Master Hillphire worked tirelessly to bring you back," Bedivere said. "He has done a marvelous job."

"You flatter me."

"No," Penny said. "He's right. I am proof of your life's work."

"It isn't over yet, though," Hillphire said. "I need to ensure that you can break free of your body when the time comes. You will last much longer than flesh and blood humans, but one day even your mechanical body will break down and I do not want you staying trapped in there."

"We will get there when the time comes." She pulled away from him. "Right now, we still have a job to do."

"Right." He turned to Bedivere. "Speaking of which, I have that other project completed."

"The bike?" Bedivere said.

"Yes." He looked at Penny. "Do you wish to see it as well?"

"I am eager to see the outside world again," she said.

"Let's go, then," Qrow said, leading the way out of the vault. Oscar was lagging behind. "What's wrong, kiddo?"

"Ozpin isn't very happy," he said.

"He's never happy. C'mon, let's join the others."

Hillphire proudly unveiled the new motorcycle he had procured. It was yellow and black in color, shaped with incredibly sleek lines, topped by an aggressive fascia and four headlights.

"A fine vehicle indeed," Bedivere said.

"It does need one final touch," Hillphire said. "And I'm afraid you must be the one to, uh, put your life on the line."

"What is this you need me to do that sounds so dangerous?"

"I believe it is an interface you require, is it not?" Penny asked Hillphire.

"Precisely," he said. "And unlike Penny here, whom I have modified to be able to interface with whatever machine she likes, the human body can only interface with machinery in so many ways."

Penny found a small slot for her hand to fit in. She reached in and the motorcycle turned itself on.

"I see," she said. "Does the owner of this vehicle have an artificial hand?"

"Wow, she catches on quick," Qrow said.

"That is correct," Hillphire said. "And that is why that particular interface exists."

"Wait," Qrow chuckled. "You need Yang's hand, huh?"

"I shamefully admit that I do."

Everybody turned to Bedivere.

"This may be the most dangerous mission I have ever been tasked with," the knight said, scratching his head.

"I believe in you, Sir Knight!" Penny cheered.

He smiled. The joy had returned to her, completely eradicating that isolation and utter despair that had once consumed her being. Even without touching her, he could sense the purity of her heart. That was enough to give him the courage to do this next most dangerous task.

Oscar changed personalities without warning.

"Whoa," Qrow said.

"Oscar and I have switched places for the time being," Ozpin said to the group. "Time grows short until the siege of Mistral begins. Qrow, I am going to need you to do something for me."

"Oh, here we go. Whaddya want, Oz?"

"For you to try and reach a diplomatic solution with Raven. We need her and the Spring Maiden if we are to achieve victory against Salem."

"Diplomatic?" Qrow said. "You know how pointless that's gonna be, right?"

"If it has but the slightest chance of success, we must do what we can."

"Professor Ozpin's reasoning is sound," Penny chimed in. "From my analysis of the situation, there is a non-zero chance of your success on this mission. And I also anticipate that the reason Professor Ozpin is suggesting you go is because my reactivation was a success. We have more than enough firepower here to spare one Huntsman leaving the city and going on another important mission."

"Penny is correct," Ozpin said. "With her upgrades, we have more than a chance at keeping Mistral from being completely destroyed."

"Our odds of success depend greatly upon the enemy's numbers, however. And without that information, I cannot formulate a success probability."

"That's fine," Hillphire said. "One of the things I've learned in life is that there will always be unknowns involved."

She looked at him and smiled. "You can strike my situation off your list of unknowns."

He smiled back at her. No words could describe the sheer elation and pride in his heart right now.

"Hillphire," Bedivere said. "You have brought salvation to her."

"You have indeed," Ozpin said. "Although you and I both agree that this kind of science is forbidden, you have set aside your principles to ensure that a person in immediate distress would be freed from her prison as soon as humanly possible."

"I did not feel the desperation Bedivere felt from her," Hillphire said. "I do not have that gift. However, I could not ignore the reality before me, not with the mental scans showing activity even in your low-power state."

"Again, I thank you, Master Hillphire," Penny said before bowing.

"All right," Qrow said, sighing. "Oz, you owe me a bottle of the good shit. And you better have something friggin' amazing when I get back cuz this knight's been spoiling me on some really impressive liquor."

He left the forge.

"All that's left now is to prepare and wait," Ozpin said. "I think that the best course of action at this time is to—" Oscar gasped as he returned to the surface unexpectedly. "Whoa. Jeez, I still gotta get used to that crap. Anyway, Ozpin was trying to say that we should all rest until the White Fang attacks. We've only got a week until classes begin and that is the time they have designated to strike."

"They are very likely gathering as we speak," Penny said.

"They are," Hillphire said. "I sent out a few drones to scout the surrounding area and they've spotted movement in suspicious places. They are probably going to attack from the surrounding mountains. The Faunus have exceptional sensory capabilities, after all."

"They can't compete with me, though!"

They all turned to Penny.

"I've got upgrades even they couldn't imagine!"

Hillphire chuckled. "Indeed. And we'll test out those upgrades tonight before you join the rest of them. Ruby will be very ecstatic to see you again, you know."

She beamed. "For the time being, I will concentrate on defragmenting my files and ensuring full data cohesion."

"We can do that later on when you hook back up to the system. For now, just enjoy yourself."

"That is important," Bedivere said. "You'll have time to do all that technical stuff all day. You want to experience as much of the world as you can while you still have the chance."

"Master Hillphire," Penny said, turning to the blacksmith. "I am detecting a few unfamiliar non-combat systems onboard my chassis. There is an olfactory system included with everything else."

"Yes," he said. "I did include in you the ability to taste and smell food."

"Oh. I thought I was detecting the scent of gunpowder in the air."

"That's from all the testing, of course."

"Do you mean that she can eat?" Oscar said, gawking.

"Of course. I even included systems that allow you to break down organic matter and process it into fuel. Your equipment is, unsurprisingly, far more efficient than human systems as well. Ninety-five percent of the organic matter you consume is directly converted to energy."

"Neat!" Penny said. "Oscar, will you take me to have some ice cream?"

"Uh, sure," he said nervously.

Bedivere chuckled. "You kids have some fun. I must embark on my dangerous journey now. Just make sure you don't stay out too late."

"Yes, sir!" Penny said, performing a mock salute.

—

It was midnight when Bedivere commenced his most dangerous undertaking. He snuck around the unlit dormitory, using only his memory of the layout and his keen senses to navigate his way to Yang's room. He slid the door open. Fortunately, she hadn't locked it. She was sound asleep, arms and legs sprawled in every which way, matching the spread of her golden hair.

He looked around for his target. It was sitting on the nightstand, literally inches away from her. He crept closer to her bionic hand, his footsteps imperceptible to the human ear. He reached out to pick up the prosthesis when Yang sat up, looking straight at him. He froze in place. Several seconds passed, her sleepy eyes still fixed on him. It felt to him like an eternity and a half.

She yawned, laying back down, but not before reaching out and grabbing him by the waist, pulling him into bed with her. Bedivere's heart was pounding, his eyes wide open, adrenaline through the roof. She wrapped her arms around him from behind, her legs interlocking with his. He could feel her soft bosom press up against his back as she embraced him tightly.

"You feel so nice..." she mumbled.

He waited for several minutes. Was she awake? No, not at all. She hadn't moved since she pulled him into bed with her. He whispered her name.

"Yang?" he said again, a little louder this time. When she didn't respond, he began peeling her hand away from his body, slowly unwrapping his legs from hers. There was a bulge in his pants. _Terrible timing!_ he thought, trying to get his mind off of the beautiful young woman pressing up against his back.

He had freed most of his body from her grip when she quickly reestablished her hold on him. Her hand began to move on its own down his abdomen and toward his belt buckle as she snuggled him from behind, her hair tickling the back of his neck.

 _By the gods,_ he thought.

This was going to be a very long night.

—

"You'll be okay hooking back up to the system, won't you?" Hillphire asked Penny.

She nodded with a smile. The innocence on her face was refreshing. He may not have had the firsthand experience of her state of mind before her revival, but Bedivere's reaction alone gave him the belief that she might reemerge as a damaged girl. The mental scans were no different. Perhaps it was her programming that prevented her from having a psychological breakdown, a built-in subroutine that responded specifically to a mental crisis that had activated as soon as she had returned to full power.

But there were still so many things about her that were mysteries to Hillphire and perhaps to the rest of the engineering world as well. Her original creator had even admitted to him during casual conversation in the distant past that he, too, had been surprised at the formation of an aura within her. Perhaps it was sheer will that prevented her from collapsing under all that stress. She did exhibit an unusually strong personality, after all.

"Let me know if you ever feel uneasy about any of this," Hillphire said again. "I know you're a strong girl, but I also don't want to subject you to more than is necessary. You've been through enough as it is."

"I know," she said. "Thank you for your concern."

He gave her a nod before heading over to the terminal that controlled all of the diagnostics and maintenance equipment that was integral to her upkeep. Before he could get started, there was a pounding on the vault door. He looked at a security monitor. Bedivere was on the other side.

"Hillphire," Bedivere said, panting as the vault door opened.

"What in the world happened to you?" he asked.

He held out Yang's prosthetic limb. "How long is it going to take?"

"A few hours, at best."

" _Hours_?" Bedivere nearly yelled.

"I could help you with the programming," Penny said, getting off of the maintenance bay and walking to them. "We can shorten the time significantly. Sir Bedivere, why are you in a heightened state of awareness?"

"Because Yang just assaulted me," he panted. "In her sleep! I need to get that back to her as soon as humanly possible or else she'll assault me once more when she awakens!"

"I do not detect any physical injuries on you. What kind of assault do you mean?"

"The unpleasant kind! Or, I suppose, _pleasant_ , but I did not wish to take part in it!"

"Oh. I think I understand." She smiled.

"This is not something to be smiling about!"

She giggled before leading the way out of the vault to the workstation where Yang's motorcycle was ready for programming.

"Master Hillphire?" she said, handing the prosthesis to him.

Both went to work on the programming. As Penny had calculated, the time it took to program the hand to the motorcycle was decreased significantly. At most, they had spent only fifteen minutes.

"You certainly come in _handy_ , Penny," Hillphire said with a grin.

"Oh, no, Master Hillphire," she said. "I should be the one clapping my _hands_ for you!"

"Oh, stop. Your praise is _disarming_ me!"

"Are you two finished?" Bedivere shouted.

Hillphire and Penny shared a chuckle before the blacksmith gave the prosthesis back to him.

"Thank you, blacksmith, for _handing_ me the hand!" Bedivere said, garnering applause from the other two. "I shall take my leave now!"

They watched as he left before heading back into the vault. Penny took her place on the maintenance bay, plugging a large cable into a port on her abdomen, where there was no artificial skin growing. She was ready to go under for the updates to her files.

"Okay, this'll run overnight," Hillphire said. "Feel free to sleep through it."

"I shall enter into a power down state," she said. She watched as he grabbed a pillow from a cabinet before lying down on a metal surface that jutted out of the wall. "Do you not have a bedroom?"

"I have many bedrooms," he said, adjusting his pillow. "This is one of them."

"You won't get cold?"

"There's a reason my name rhymes with the word 'fire'. My heart burns with passion for my work and that is enough to keep me warm no matter how cold it is around me."

She smiled.

"Lights, night mode."

The vault's ceiling lights shut down. Only the floor lights and monitors were still on, but even those dimmed to a level that would not bother him while he slept. Hillphire was nearly asleep when Penny spoke up again.

"Master Hillphire?" she said quietly.

"Yes, Penny, is something the matter?" he asked.

"No, nothing is wrong. I just wanted to ask...is it okay if I call you 'Liam'?"

A smile found its way on his face. "Yes. That would be fine."


	26. Chapter XXVI

CHAPTER XXVI

 _Wenn Ich Keine Wörter habe_

"I had the weirdest dream last night," Yang said, yawning as she joined the rest of the crew for breakfast.

Bedivere stiffened. In more ways than one.

"What was it about?" Blake asked.

"I don't remember all of it, but—"

"Is it rated R?" Ruby yelled, covering her ears.

"No, dum dum," Yang said, flicking the back of her head.

"Ow!"

"I think I was in bed with somebody."

"That _is_ rated R!" Ruby said as she covered her ears again.

"Oh, shush! Nothing happened anyway. Not that I can remember. It was all so hazy."

"Did this mystery person have a face?" Nora asked.

"No, but I do remember him being very strong. Real muscular, if you know what I mean."

"Oooh!"

Ren noticed Bedivere flinch a second time.

"What else do you remember?" Hollie asked her.

"He kept playing with my hair and stuff," Yang said. "And just as it was about to get good, I friggin' woke up. Most annoying thing ever."

"Ugh, I hate that."

"Anyway, yeah. That was weird. And another thing was weird, too. My hand was warm when I put it on just now."

"Warm?"

"Yeah. Usually it's cold as heck when I put it on first thing in the morning."

"You should probably bring it down to Hillphire's forge to get it checked," Ren suggested.

"Oh, right, he's good with electronic stuff, too. Maybe I can even get an upgrade," she snickered.

There was a knock on the front door.

"I'll get it," Oscar said, setting his plate in the sink before leaving the kitchen.

"I wonder who that is," Jaune said.

"Good morning, Oscar," a familiar voice came from the living room.

"Oh, it's just Hillphire."

"Ohh!" Ruby said, standing up quickly. "Hillphire! We're having breakfast! Come and eat with us!"

"We'd be glad to join you," he said, entering the dining hall.

"Wait, 'we'?" Blake said.

Everybody turned to the entryway to spot Hillphire and Oscar with Penny standing between them.

Ruby gasped, throwing her hands over her mouth. "Penny?" she squeaked as her eyes began to flood.

"Salutations!" Penny said loudly.

"Penny!" Ruby cried as she lunged at her, wrapping her arms all over her.

"Didn't we watch her die?" Blake said, standing up with the others.

"Yeah, I saw that in person," Jaune said.

"And TV," Hollie said.

"Penny!" Ruby squealed. "How? What? When?"

Penny giggled with her as they shared another hug.

"To answer your question," Hillphire began, "what you watched was not her dying, but rather catastrophic damage to her chassis. She was still in there, waiting for power to be restored and for repairs to be made. She's still the same Penny, with the same memories, and the same soul."

"But, _how_?" Yang said.

Hillphire quickly eyed her prosthetic arm before turning his attention back to the group and giving a short explanation on the entire process.

"You called that short?" Jaune groaned.

"That was a half-hour explanation," Sun said, letting his head fall on the table.

"I understood it," Blake said.

"Me, too," Hollie said.

"Not me," Yang said.

"Me neither," Nora said.

"You guys are such flunks," Weiss said to the naysayers.

"I didn't understand it either," Ruby said, "but I don't care cuz all I know is Penny's alive!"

The two held hands and hopped in circles together.

"It's good to be back," Penny said, returning Ruby's smile.

"Yes," Bedivere said. "It seems Team JNPR can be fully reconstituted."

Jaune, Ren, and Nora looked at him before turning to Penny. It was not lost on the trio that Penny had, in fact, previously been killed by their own fallen teammate.

"It would honor me," Penny said, bowing, "if you would accept me on your team. I could never hope to replace who Pyrrha was to you, but if you do accept me, I swear to do my best to live up to the legacy she left behind."

Jaune walked up to her, putting a hand on her shoulder. "It would be a privilege to have you on the team," he said.

She looked over to Ren and Nora, both of whom were smiling.

"Thank you," she said with another bow.

"Finally we can have a real Team JNPR vs. Team RWBY match again!" Nora said. "Team Junior Silent H was great and all—"

Jaune and Ren sighed again.

"—but nothing beats a full Team JNPR!"

"You can count on me!" Penny said, placing her fists on her hips.

"We have a bunch of free agents now," Hollie said. "There's me, Will, Oscar, Bedivere, and Sun."

"I am useless against the Grimm," Hillphire said. "I will be of much more use to the teams at the control tower where I can coordinate the defenses and provide support."

"I don't think I'm ready for the front lines," Oscar said.

"And I'm more of a support person anyway," Hollie said.

Sun looked at Bedivere. "It's guess it's just you and me."

"Yes, but Team BS?" the knight said, causing Sun to laugh hysterically.

"That is _gold_!" Sun said.

"We could make it Team SOB if I join you guys," Oscar said. "But I think that's worse."

Sun laughed again. "Keep 'em comin'! These are great!"

"It'll be Team BROS if I join," Ren said.

Sun was on the floor now, flailing as he laughed. "Awesome!" he wheezed. "So much awesome!"

"BROS needs to happen," Yang said.

"It _so_ needs to happen," Hollie said.

"Nope," Jaune said. "Not breaking up my team. Nope."

"I guess you guys are stuck as Team SOB," Nora snickered.

"Or Team BS," Weiss said.

—

The training match between Team RWBY and the new Team JNPR was intense, having ended in a draw only because Penny decided not to use the most powerful weapons at her disposal and stuck to conventional equipment instead.

"Why didn't you blow them away?" Jaune asked her.

"I didn't wanna take the whole building down in the process," she said.

"You have that kind of power?" Nora asked her.

She nodded. "Liam added some new equipment to my inventory."

"Liam?" She looked around, spotting Hillphire chatting with Ruby and Oscar. "Oh, Liam. William. Wil-Liam. Liam. Right. Cool!"

"You've already tested them, though?" Ren asked her.

"Yup," Penny said. "At his forge."

"I can't wait to see what you're packin'!" Nora said.

Meanwhile, Weiss, Blake, and Yang were chatting with Sun and Hollie. Bedivere had gone up to join them when once again Blake's ears gripped his attention like iron jaws. He stood behind her and Weiss, attempting to fight the urge. It was a losing battle. His leg bounced of its own accord and he grabbed it to try and get it to stop.

"So you're gonna partner up with Bedivere, huh?" Weiss said to Sun.

"Yup," he said. "The Monkey King has to have his knight, you know."

Blake sighed, rolling her eyes.

"A two man team's gonna be really weird, though," Yang said. "I guess Hollie could always join you guys."

"If Oscar joins, we'll be Team HOBS," Hollie said. "The team of philosophers."

"Sun's not much of a philosopher, though," Weiss said.

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean? C'mon, Blake gimme some backup—"

Blake shrieked as she paled, freezing in place. They all looked up to her head. There was a pair of hands gently touching her cat ears. Everyone else in the room stared with their mouths open.

 _These cursed hands!_ Bedivere thought.

Blake's shock rapidly transformed into unbridled fury. In a flash, she had her sword drawn, attacking Bedivere in a frenzy. He could barely manage a defense with his katana, dodging and parrying and blocking as needed.

"Blake!" he pleaded. "I did not mean to!"

She screamed at him, continuing her onslaught.

"Please! I swear! I had no control over my hands!"

Meanwhile, the others grouped up as far away from the fight as they could. No one had ever seen Blake go into such a furious blitz. Only Sun was separated from the group.

"You..." he seethed. "You didn't just do that." He pulled out his staff. "You bastard!"

Bedivere was now fighting a two-front war. All of his movements were focused on evasion and defense.

"Sun! Blake!" he pleaded. "You both have the wrong idea!"

"Wrong idea this!" Blake said, nailing him with a shadow attack, which crashed into him and exploded into ice, rooting him into the floor. Sun cloned himself, sending both projections to attack him simultaneously alongside Blake. The clones fought as furiously as the original did and with his feet planted firmly in place, Bedivere's defense broke down.

Blake landed another hit with a shadow clone, this one exploding and sending him flying across the room. Before she and Sun could launch another attack, Yang, Ruby, Weiss, and Hollie ran to restrain them.

"Hey, c'mon!" Weiss said to the two. "Calm down!"

"I _am_ calm!" Blake screamed.

"Me, too!" Sun also screamed.

This went on for a few minutes before they finally took deep breaths and the others could let them go.

"Bedivere, what is your problem?" Weiss asked.

"I don't know!" he said. "It was, as though some strange sorcery took control over my body and I was helpless to stop my hands from doing their own thing!"

"Whoa," Yang said. "When you put it like that..."

"Yang!" the others yelled at her.

"I'm sorry," Bedivere said, scratching his head. "Truly, I am. I do not know what came over me."

Blake sighed. "Fine. Just, jeez. You couldn't _ask_?"

"Would you have granted me permission?"

"Of course not."

"Oh."

"He asked me the same thing in the locker room the other day!" Sun said.

Jaune and Ren chuckled with Oscar.

"Wait, seriously?" Nora said.

"Uh-huh!" Sun said.

"Have you reconsidered if I may touch your tail?" Bedivere asked.

" _No!_ " Sun and Blake yelled at the same time.

"Exactly!" Sun added.

"Okay, let's put some distance between you guys," Weiss said, separating Bedivere from the others.

"You wanna touch my ears?" Hollie asked him.

"Huh?" several of the group said at the same time.

"M-May I?" Bedivere said.

She nodded, reddening. He walked over to her, reaching up to touch her lion ears. She closed her eyes as he began scratching behind her ear. She caught herself groan.

"Okay, that's enough," Weiss said, pulling Bedivere away. "You are both _so_ weird."

"B-But he wasn't even done yet!" Hollie said.

—

The day had come and gone. The match between Team RWBY and JNPR was the only match and the remainder of training was light. They had to conserve their energy now that the White Fang attack was nearing. Bedivere had stepped out of the dorms, distancing himself from the group for some time. Ozpin had been right about one thing. He could not bear to lose any of those youngsters, not after everything they'd been through. That was why he had decided to tone down the intensity of their training over the past few days.

Spending time together before a big battle was important. There was no knowing what outcome this siege would bring. Even these young warriors knew that. Still, the loss they knew of paled in comparison to the loss Bedivere had experienced in his lifetime. He took a seat on a bench before reaching into his coat pocket, pulling out the group photograph they had taken at the end of the festival. They had managed to fit everybody into the picture, even Qrow, who had begrudgingly joined in. Penny was the only one missing.

"We gotta take another one," Yang said from over his shoulder, making him fall off the bench in fright. "Oh, wow, I really didn't mean to scare you like that!" She started laughing.

"That was not funny," he said, dusting himself off.

"Yeah, that was hilarious! Seriously, though, we gotta take a new photo now that Penny's back. Maybe tomorrow. Let's go into town again and grab a group shot."

"Yes, that would be nice."

"Speaking of the group, what are you doing out here?"

He didn't answer.

"Hey, c'mon, what's wrong with you?" Yang said, sighing. "It's Weiss, isn't it?"

"Am I that transparent?"

"When it comes to her, yeah, you sure are."

He let out a big sigh.

"Tell you what. Let's go hit up that one club I've been bugging you about."

"What, you want to dance?"

"No, dummy! I'm gonna hold you to that promise you made when we first met." She grabbed him by the hand, but he resisted. "C'mon, dude. You're not staying here to mope around for the rest of the night."

He ultimately acquiesced, allowing her to drag him out of the dorm and through the streets of Mistral all the way to the nightclub she had in mind. It was a loud place, bursting with high-energy electronic music. He watched as she made confident strides to the bar, each step taken as if she owned the place herself. It was confidence similar to the one Weiss possessed, but Yang's had a certain roughness to it. Unlike the refined Weiss, Yang was completely natural.

"Two beers," she said, leaning against the counter.

"Ain't you a little young to be drinking?" the bartender said.

She placed a pile of Lien on the counter.

"Comin' right up, ma'am."

"Where did you get that money?" Bedivere asked her.

"I stole it from Weiss's purse," she said with a smirk.

"But, she doesn't...have..."

She chuckled.

"Never mind. I'm not going to ask."

The bartender came back with two mugs for them.

"All right, you ready for this?" she asked him.

"Ready...for...?"

"C'mon! Don't tell me you're scared of a little girl." She bit her lower lip playfully.

He straightened up. "Excuse me?"

"Is the big handsome knight really such a lightweight?"

"Bartender?"

"Hmm?" the man behind the counter said. "What can I do ya for?"

"Let's have two more beers. The largest pitchers you own."

He glanced at Bedivere and Yang before chuckling. "Comin' right up, boss."

Yang was grinning at him the entire time. "Are you tryin'a impress me?"

"Not at all," Bedivere said.

She leaned toward him. "You sure?"

"Of course I am certain!"

Her grin wouldn't go away. "All right, if you say so."

"Here's your beers," the bartender said, slamming down two pitchers. Bedivere reached into his pocket and placed a gold ounce on the counter. "Whoa, buddy, you're way overpayin'."

"Consider it an advance payment for the rest of the night, then," Bedivere said. "For both of us. And keep the rest as a tip if we don't exceed the amount."

"Jeez, all right, you got it, boss!"

"Well, then," Yang said, lifting up her pitcher. "Who do we dedicate this to? To Weiss?"

Bedivere lifted his up. "To you."

"To me, huh?"

He nodded, gesturing to the bartender, who chuckled before giving them a countdown. As soon as he hit zero, they began guzzling their drinks, attracting a small crowd even before they finished. Yang finished hers first by a whole second.

"And Goldie wins!" somebody in the crowd announced, prompting Yang to bow in triumph.

"Six more," Bedivere said sternly to the bartender.

"You sure you don't wanna give up yet?" Yang taunted him.

Her permanent grin started to get under his skin, though he found it impossible to deny that it was turning him on, especially after last night.

 _Did I just think that? Damn it, I need to stop drinking. But I cannot allow her to defeat me!_

"Prepare thyself," he said, "for this Knight of Kameloth shall not be bested in any competition!"

"You may be good in the ring, Mister Knight," Yang said, "but you ain't gonna beat me here."

"Have at you!"

They began another race, attracting an even larger crowd. One down. A draw. Next pitcher. Bedivere spilled a little bit, but Yang made it even when she spilled some of her own as well. They had an even larger crowd now.

To both of them, this battle was the most critical of all, of far greater weight than any of the battles against the Grimm or against Salem's forces. Even the upcoming White Fang attack was nowhere near as vital as this confrontation now was.

Two pitchers down. One more to go. Bedivere had a head start this time, but Yang wasn't going down, not so easily.

"You still got those mugs you got in the beginning," the bartender said. "That's gonna be your finisher."

Yang gave him a thumb-up, finishing her drink at the same time as her knightly escort. This final battle was going to be close.

"Done!" Yang shouted in triumph, literally half a second before Bedivere managed to slam his own mug on the counter.

The crowd exploded into cheers, chanting "Goldie" over and over again before eventually splitting back up.

"What are you two, Grimm?" the bartender said with a chuckle.

Bedivere rocked to the side a little bit.

"Whoa, are you gonna be okay?" Yang chuckled.

"Of course I am!" Bedivere said, burping loudly. "I am a Knight of Kameloth!"

Yang started laughing out loud, the effects of all that beer starting to hit her.

"M-Mister bartenender, might we have another glass of beer?"

"Just one this time?" he said.

"Nonononono. We must have..." He turned to Yang. "Do you enjoy liquor, madam?"

She started chuckling, making him chuckle as well before they started laughing uncontrollably.

"Two glasses of your best Scotch, good sir," Bedivere said. "Top shelf, please. Doubles. No ice."

"Don't you mean," Yang began, "no Weiss?"

Bedivere started chuckling and again they descended into full-blown uncontrolled laughter.

"No Weiss, mister bartender," the knight said.

"Are you sure about this?" the bartender said.

"I...am a Knight of Kameloth!"

The man shook his head as he went to go pour their drinks. He wasn't about to say "no" to a guy that just dropped the gold equivalent of 150,000 Lien on this night.

Bedivere moved to lean against the counter, but missed. Yang ended up catching him instead. He looked up at her in a daze.

"What is happening?" he asked.

"You tell me, big guy," she chuckled.

"I...you...smell nice."

She laughed. "What?"

"Do you use Snuggle to wash your clothing?"

"No, I don't, actually." She snickered. "C'mon, let's go grab a table."

They took their drinks from the counter before finding a booth, which a number of people voluntarily gave up for them, chanting "Goldie" as they left.

"You're quite the popular one," Bedivere said, taking a seat across from her.

"I mean, I did kick your ass," she said with a smirk.

"You did _not_ kick my ass."

"Oh? Is that why your speech is slurred and you're stumbling everywhere?"

"That's just the tipsy. I am fully in control over my—" He unleashed a powerful burp, which lasted five whole seconds, "—actions."

Yang snickered as she tried the drink he had chosen for them. It certainly was top-shelf, unlike some of that cheap crap she'd had before. There was a distinct rosy flavor to this blend, coupled with a slight spice. The last flavor to hit her tongue was a hint of maple.

"You have pretty good taste in alcohol, Sir Knight," Yang said.

"Thank—" Bedivere hiccupped, "—you." He took a sip from his own glass. "Hmm. This must be 21-Gun-Salute. I can taste the maple and rose. And the spice."

"I'm surprised at how lucid _and_ shit-faced you can be at the same time," Yang said.

"I am a professional, madam. And, a Knight—"

"Of Kameloth."

"You, my lady, are a woman after my own heart."

She laughed.

Most of the night continued on in this manner, with Bedivere primarily tripping over words and Yang laughing at nine-tenths of everything that came out of his mouth, including burps and hiccups. It would take two hours before they were both sober enough to walk around safely and they decided to head out of the bar to get back to Haven Academy's dorms. Bedivere stopped at a hillside just outside the gates.

"What's up?" Yang asked him.

He didn't answer.

"Jeez. Weiss again?"

He looked down at the grass.

"Oh, c'mon, it's never gonna go away if you just ignore it, you know. Why don't you go tell her what I told you and get it done?"

"But what if I say the wrong words again?" he said.

"Look, people aren't perfect. That includes _you_ , Knight of Kameloth."

"But I must be. It's what she deserves."

"My god you have such high expectations for yourself."

He sighed and took a seat on the grassy hill. She watched him for a bit before letting out her own sigh and sitting beside him.

"You know that I carefully think up everything I say before I say it when she's around?"

"Man," Yang said. "I dunno if I could live like that."

"I told you I can't help it. It's part of the compulsion."

She thought about it for a little bit. "No, I remember you saying that 'keep her safe' was the voice in your head. This, all this, is extra stuff."

He smiled. "Yes, you're right about that. Keeping her safe is not a choice for me. It's my purpose. But, my devotion to her _is_ my choice."

She smiled, too. "Just say it. 'I love her.'"

His face warmed up. "That's too cheesy."

"Oh, because 'I am yours for all eternity' is _not_ cheesy? I mean, jeez, you don't even say it in English! Jeez! Cheese!"

He let himself plop down on the grass. "But that captures how I feel for her much more than three simple words."

"Bedivere, sometimes simple is better. Then again, it's not like there are all that many guys out there who say 'ich bin dein füralle Ewigkeit' to their loves, huh? What's with that anyway? Is it something you picked up in your past life or something?"

He didn't answer.

Yang sighed as she let herself fall down on the grass next to him. "I'm so not jealous of you two. I'd go nuts with all this craziness. I'm down with straightforward stuff, not this monkey business." She chuckled. "Like Sun and Blake."

"Hah!" Bedivere laughed. "Monkey King and his monkey business!"

"I still can't believe you just went ahead and touched her ears like that."

"Neither can I. What was it about those ears of hers? Are they magical or something?"

"Psh, hell if I know. By the way, I lost my shit when you asked Sun if you could touch his tail, too. And then Hollie, whoa, what a cougar."

He burst into laughter and she joined him.

"Yes, that was...interesting," he said, looking up at the stars in the sky. "Is it just me, or are the stars moving?"

"It's just you, Lightweight Knightweight. That's my new nickname for you, b-t-dubs."

"I swear I shall have my revenge."

"Any time you feel up to it, Knightweight. Also, you better hope she doesn't see us out here like this. Weiss gets jealous pretty fast, you know. Especially about her precious knight in shining armor. And apparently she sees me as her rival when it comes to you, so, be careful."

He chuckled. "Is that true?"

"Yup."

"That's why she always becomes so irritable after you and I finish sparring."

"You never noticed that? Gosh, you really _are_ dense."

He closed his eyes.

"You're not gonna fall asleep on me out here, are you?"

"Of course not. I just wish to close my eyes. That's all."

"Good, cuz I'm not carrying you back."

"The hell are you two doin' out here?"

Yang sat up. "Uncle Qrow? What are _you_ doing out here?"

"Goin' out to get a refill." He waved his flask around. "Hey, is that the knight?"

She glanced at her companion. "Yup."

"You're not trying to steal the princess's knight in shining armor, are you?"

She chuckled. "And call down her wrath? No, thanks. Although, I gotta admit he _is_ pretty cute."

Qrow looked at him. "Is that guy even awake?"

"He had a little too much to drink, that's all."

"What a lightweight."

"Knightweight."

"Hah, good one! Look, just don't take advantage of the poor guy, all right?"

She chuckled. "I won't. Promise."

"All right. If you need help carrying him back to the dorms, I'll be back in..."

"Somehow I'm thinking I'll end up carrying both of you back to the dorms myself."

"Probably. See you later, kiddo."

"You plan on being gone for a long time?"

He stopped.

"You're carrying a pretty big backpack, you know. I'm drunk, not stupid."

"I'm goin' on a long mission. Keep it to yourself. No sense in getting the others worried about it."

She sighed. "I ain't gonna stop you, Uncle Qrow, but, take care of yourself, okay?"

"You take care of your sister."

She watched for a while until Qrow disappeared down the hill. She turned to Bedivere, whose eyes were still closed. She waved her hand in front of his face. When he didn't respond, she poked him on the cheek. Still no response.

"I told you not to fall asleep, you dummy," she said. A sinister grin started to form on her face. She leaned in to whisper in his ear. "Hey, you know Weiss has been standing there staring at you."

His eyes fluttered open before he quickly sat up and looked around in a panic. The blood hadn't caught up with his head yet and he immediately fell back down to the grass, nearly blacking out. Yang, on the other hand, was laughing hysterically, grasping her stomach and flailing about on the grass as he tried to regain his composure.

"That..." he managed, "...was not...funny."

"You're damn right!" she said. "It was friggin' riot!"

"I...am going...to throw up on you."

"Hey, no-no-no-no-no! Not my—"

Rather than vomiting, he turned over and landed face first right in her lap.

"Oh, c'mon!"

She was going to push him off, but stopped herself. She looked down at him and sighed. She couldn't wake him up now, not when he had been through so much. He deserved this rest, even if would only last for a mere moment. She placed her real hand on his head, smiling as she watched him sleep.

"Yang?"

"Ruby!"

"Umm, what are you doing with Weiss's knight? Cuz it looks like you're taking advantage of him."

"Ugh, I'm not! C'mon, help me get this guy back to the dorms before he completely passes out."

"So, you're trying to recruit me to cover up your evidence and give you an alibi?"

"Ruby!"

"Okay, okay." She took one shoulder while her sister got the other. "What are you doing out here anyway?"

"I was gonna ask you the same thing."

"Well, I didn't go drinking like you two and Uncle Qrow."

"You passed by him, too, huh?"

"He was literally entering a bar when I ran into him."

"Fun stuff. So, what, are you, like, hanging out with that cute blacksmith again?"

"If you don't stop teasing me about him, I'm gonna tell Weiss you're getting her knight drunk and taking advantage of him."

"Ruby, I swear, if you do anything like that, I'm gonna steal your scythe and bury it where you'll never find it."

She gasped. "You wouldn't!"

"You better believe I will."


	27. Chapter XXVII

CHAPTER XXVII

 _Ende der Ruhe_

"This is it," Hillphire said as he and everybody else gathered together in one of Haven Academy's classrooms. "We don't exactly know when they're gonna attack, but Blake's information is solid. It will most likely be at night, but we must be prepared for a day attack as well. Our defenses are ready, but hidden. We cannot let the enemy know that we are prepared for them."

"There are no risks of them changing their plans," Penny said. "My analysis of the surveillance we have been running indicates that they are too heavily invested into this attack and it will certainly happen within the next seventy-two hours."

"Even still, if the enemy were to find out that we have been preparing a defense, this may become dragged out into a siege, which Mistral cannot afford to undertake. The city is self-sufficient to a certain degree, but a siege would cause morale within our borders to drop and the Grimm would descend on us even harder than the last attack."

"Our battle plan is as follows," Bedivere began as Oscar turned on a projector that displayed a map of the city. "These two entrances to the capital will be our primary defensive choke points just as before. The northern gate is much narrower and therefore easier to defend, but it is also vulnerable to ambushes from the mountains. As the White Fang consists entirely of Faunus, we must assume that they are capable of traversing the most adverse of terrain."

"The south entrance is much wider than the north gate," Oscar began, "and with the lower town outside of the wall, this will most probably become a battleground. We already have plans to evacuate into the city the instant the attack begins, though."

"We can't just evacuate them now?" Weiss asked.

"That will not be possible," Bedivere said. "First of all, the city does not have the resources to contain all of those people within the walls, but we also do not want to alert the enemy to our own plans. We must be willing to accept a certain number of losses."

"Wait, you're willing to sacrifice people to win a war?" Jaune asked him. "What makes us any different from the bad guys if we're not gonna try and save everyone?"

"Say we evacuate the town now, Jaune. Let's run that scenario. The White Fang will surely notice the lower town empty. They may make the assessment that we are prepared for an assault and the invasion instead turns into a siege, where they barricade the entire city. The lower town houses a significant portion of the city's population and bringing them all into the walls will place enormous stresses upon the city's ability to sustain itself. It won't be long before resource consumption outpaces resource generation and the people turn on each other and the city falls without the enemy ever setting foot within."

"How do you know it'll end up like that, though?" Nora asked.

"Because I have seen it happen with my own eyes. I was the garrison captain who ordered the early evacuation of the lower town into the city walls. I was the one who, in a feeble attempt to save every life, caused the deaths of nearly everyone in the entire city. I should have died with those citizens. Instead, my knights dragged me away as only a handful of us escaped the sacking of Caerleon."

Everyone was quiet. They all had an idea of what he might have gone through in his past life, but this level of detail painted an extremely vivid picture of the burden he carried with him every day.

"Believe me," Bedivere continued, "I, too, do not like the idea of potentially losing lives in the early stages of battle, but if that is what must be done to ensure that the greatest number of lives can be saved, then so be it. I shall take the responsibility of this strategic decision upon myself. This transgression will be on my shoulders alone."

 _No_ , Weiss thought. _It shouldn't be on your shoulders alone. Because you're not alone._

"Are there any other questions in regards to our overall strategy before we move on to individual team tactics?"

There was no response from the crowd.

"Very well. Hillphire?"

"Our defenses will be coordinated from Haven Academy's control center," he began. "While the rest of the defenses are managed by other capable commanders, I will be the one directing Teams RWBY and JNPR specifically. I am more than familiar with both teams' capabilities and know how to deploy you in every situation. Hollie will remain on standby in the rear lines as support with Oscar, Sun, and Bedivere."

"Yay, Team HOBS!" Hollie said. "The philosopher crew!"

"Except Sun," Yang said.

"C'mon," Sun whined.

"Wait," Ruby said. "Why is Bedivere in the rear and Weiss on the front? I'm sure we all remember what happened the last time the two of them were separated. If Weiss gets hurt again—"

"I know the risks," Bedivere said. "If the Grimm attack weeks ago truly was a test of the city's defenses, then they know of me and my capabilities. They also likely know about my greatest weakness. However, they could not possibly know that my greatest weakness is also my greatest strength."

"What do you mean?"

"I am able to sense when Weiss is in danger. And even if that were not the case, she is capable of calling me to her side." He turned to her. "When you first summoned me to your world, your call was completely subconscious. But now that I have been fully materialized in your world, you can call me to your side at any time just by concentrating on me. It's the same way I can pinpoint your location just by focusing on you."

"The enemy will most likely target Weiss," Penny said. "If they are aware of Bedivere's weakness, they will try and get to her first. It is possible that they will send their best to ensure that the job is done without fail."

"You're gonna use Weiss as bait?" Jaune said.

"I'm okay with that," Weiss said.

"Weiss?" Ruby said to her.

She stood up. "If it means protecting the people, I am willing to put my own life on the line. Not just for Mistral, but for all of Remnant."

"Adam himself might target you," Blake said. "I know better than anyone just how strong he is."

"Good," Yang said, smashing her fists together. "I've been itching to get another shot at that asshole."

"You guys are missing the point! Adam's not just any other White Fang member. He's the one who killed Sienna Kahn and stole the leadership from her! He's not someone to take lightly!"

"She's right," Sun said. "If we all thought Bedivere was really strong, Adam's on a whole 'nother level. I'm willin' to bet he can even take on a Maiden by himself."

"Even if you could somehow get to Weiss in time," Ren said to Bedivere, "do you have the strength to beat a man with that kind of ability?"

"I suppose we will have to find out for ourselves," Bedivere said.

"There are too many questions, though," Hollie said. "Plus, for sure they'll be aware of my Semblance, too. I mean, that's why they tried to grab me in the first place."

"And that's why you're on the rear," Hillphire said. "You're our trump card. You have the ability to defeat the enemy without even drawing your sword. Or axe."

"I had a teacher once," Bedivere began. "In the same way that I am a foreigner to your world, he, too, was not of our world. Before I even became a knight, when I was no more than a lowly apprentice, he took me under his wing, taught me how to fight. I accompanied him during all of his battles, many of which seemed bleak. But somehow he and his knights would always emerge victorious.

"I asked him how he and the others were able to go on fighting even when the future seemed uncertain. His answer to me was that the future is always uncertain. Sometimes, all the calculation and anticipation and planning in the universe is not enough. Sometimes, faith is the only thing we have at our disposal. It seems like a naïve, idealistic thing to say just before a battle, but I believe that faith is a powerful weapon, sharper than any sword, tougher than any shield.

"I, too, have faith, just as my old teacher did. I have faith that we will make it through this battle. We may suffer terrible losses, but there is always light at the end. We will always find our way. That is what I believe. And if we, all of us here, work together and never give up, never surrender to our doubts, to pain, to sorrow, to fatigue, we will have what it takes to achieve victory."

Jaune stood up. "Pyrrha would tell us to keep marching on," he said.

Ruby stood up with him, giving him a quiet nod.

"I just wanna bash some heads in!" Nora said, deploying her hammer and holding it in the air.

"I'm with pinky," Yang said, putting her fists together.

Soon, everyone was standing. Each one looked to another.

"That's right," Bedivere said. "Turn to each other. Because that is where you shall derive your strength. The one standing to your left and the one standing to your right. These are your brothers and sisters. When you are faced with the enemy, no matter how insurmountable they may seem, know that when you stand side by side, you cannot be defeated."

Jaune drew his sword, holding it in the air. "For Remnant!" he cried.

Everyone's weapons were in the air now. In a single, unified voice, everyone repeated Jaune's words.

"For Remnant!"

—

Bedivere met with Ozpin and Hillphire as night fell. The dormitory was quiet tonight. Everyone was getting rest. This might be the last day they'd have the chance to do so.

"We've prepared as much as we can," Hillphire said. "I don't know how it'll turn out, but I'm gonna give it my all no matter what."

"Do you think Oscar is ready?" Bedivere asked Ozpin.

"You've trained him well," he said. "I think he has what it takes not to die out there."

"I won't let anything happen to any of you."

"Of course you wouldn't. I only hope you haven't allowed all of the pressure to get to you."

"I am a Knight of Kameloth. My specialty is the ability to operate under high pressure."

"But you're still only human," Hillphire said.

"Nevertheless," Bedivere said, "I do not accept failure as a tolerable outcome. We will protect the people of Mistral. And I will not allow any of those youngsters to die. You, too, William."

Penny walked into the office. "Good evening, Liam," she greeted. "Sir Bedivere, Professor Ozpin."

"Penny," Ozpin said. "I've said it before, but I believe it is worth repeating. It's good to see you again."

"Likewise, Professor." She turned to Hillphire. "I have sent out a number of probes into the surrounding woods. The White Fang are within range and I have calculated a ninety-three percent probability that they will attack at dawn."

"Earlier than expected," Hillphire said. "I guess I'll be sleeping up in the control tower tonight."

"Shall I alert the others?"

"No," Bedivere said. "They deserve their rest for tonight. You should join them as well."

She turned to Hillphire.

"Go ahead," he said with a smile. "They were your friends before you met me. Please, go and spend time with them."

"You should join us, too!" she said to the trio.

"I think that will do," Ozpin said before relinquishing control to Oscar. "Yeah, I'll go with you," Oscar said to her.

"Liam?"

"Sure, since you asked," Hillphire said.

She turned to Bedivere.

"I will join you shortly," the knight said.

She looked down. He walked over to her, holding out his right hand, the one that contained his Nexus. She reached out and touched it, remembering that first time their souls had connected.

"I promise I will be there."

She looked up at him and beamed before leaving with Oscar and Hillphire. Bedivere watched as they walked out, the door closing behind them. He stepped over to a window, looking outside at the broken moon shining brightly in the sky. The white glow was almost overwhelming.

He looked down at his hand and rolled up his sleeve. Why was the Nexus calling to him? It had been quite active throughout the whole week, but today it might as well have been screaming.

"Be still," he said to the Nexus. But it would not be at peace.

After a minute, it finally calmed down. He let out a sigh before leaving the office to join the rest of the group, most of whom were relaxing in the dorm living room. This might be the last chance to bond. He kept lecturing them about how important it was to spend time together. He would be remiss to ignore his own demands.

—

"Knights!" Bedivere shouted to his soldiers amidst the cacophony of the war going on around them. "Today is our day! Let not this enemy cloud your vision! Bring out the valor and strength that resides within your hearts! Press onward and never retreat! For the love of Kameloth!"

"For the love of Kameloth!" the knights all cried with him as they rushed headlong into the fray to support Arthur, who was at the front lines with the rest of the knights.

Sir Bedivere and his men followed the shine of Caliburn, using it as their beacon. That's where they were riding off to, to where their king held off against the dark powers of the sorcerer-king, Urien of Afaeron. Bedivere himself was the first to arrive at Arthur's side before they continued their fight together, hacking their way through enemy soldiers and ghastly creatures of Corruption.

It was a long night, one filled with the screams of dying men, the scent of burning blood and rotting flesh and the clanging of steel against steel. Bedivere's face was fierce as he mercilessly slashed and stabbed his way across the field, his armor stained with the blood and flesh of his enemies. He held out his right hand, calling upon the power of his Nexus.

"Primal Fire!" he cried. " _Scorched Earth_!"

A blast of fiery hell consumed the battlefield, incinerating a massive chunk of the enemy's forces. Battle after battle, Bedivere, Arthur, and their fellow knights marched forth, quelling one Corrupted uprising after another. Villages burned to the ground, castles crumbled, countless were dead or dying. But never did they let up. The wars had gone on for too long. It was time to finally bring it all to an end.

Days and nights were drowned in oceans of blood as the screams of mothers and wives for their sons and husbands to come home filled the air, their cries mixing with the cawing of vultures and other creatures that had come to feast on the dead, pecking at unseeing eyes and chewing on eternally muted tongues and tearing through rotting innards—

Weiss awoke with a start, sitting upright quickly. Her hands were shaking, breathing and heart rate erratic.

"Bad dream?" a voice said.

She turned to her right. She could barely make out Bedivere's shape in the moonlight.

"You were whispering as you slept as well."

"Y-Yeah," she said, taking a deep breath. "It was a bad dream."

"Would you like to speak about it?"

She thought about all that imagery in her dream. Was it a dream? It felt more like a memory. But it wasn't hers. It was his. It had to be his. Was all of that—the trauma of war, death, and chaos—the heavy cross that he bore on his shoulders every single day? In spite of its weight, he continued to stand strong to support her when she needed him most. He had to be superhuman to bear such a weight; it almost crushed her.

"No, thank you," she said. "It was just a stupid nightmare."

"I understand. If you wish to get it off of your shoulders, I am right here."

"Speaking of which, what are you doing in my room?"

"I could not sleep. And so I came here to watch over you."

She reddened. "I do have one question."

"Yes?"

"Do you...have any regrets?"

He didn't answer for some time. "I have none. Every single crime I have committed, I did in the name of my king and the dream I shared with him, a single, unified Albion and an end to all the wars that had plagued our lands for millennia."

She watched him for a while. He was looking at the ground, arms crossed over his chest, one leg bent and leaned against the wall.

"You should get some rest, Weiss," he said. "We won't have many chances to rest from here on out."

"What about you?" she asked him.

"I get all the rest I need knowing you are safe and sound."

Heeding his suggestion, she lay sideways on her bed, facing him. She watched as he stood in place, his eyes closed. He didn't move an inch. Slowly, she drifted off. The image of her knight standing watch over her was the last thing floating before her mind's eye as sleep overtook her.


	28. Chapter XXVIII

CHAPTER XXVIII

 _Krieg_

An explosion threw Weiss back several yards, but she landed on her feet. Her aura was also intact. She could continue fighting.

"Team RWBY," Hillphire's voice sounded in their earpieces. "Switch positions with Team JNPR."

"But we're not done yet!" Yang said.

"I am monitoring your stamina and aura levels from up here and you could use a breather. Don't worry, you still have plenty of enemies to fight."

"C'mon," Blake said, detonating several shadows at once to cover their escape. "Let's give Team JNPR their chance to shine."

Nora and Penny led the charge with Jaune and Ren giving them support. The White Fang attack had been preceded by a massive swarm of Grimm that they had lured to attack the lower town. The intent was clearly three-fold, to create panic among the citizens, to distract the defenses from the north gate, and to soften up the guards. Fortunately, Hillphire and his command team were more than prepared for this exact scenario. The guards at the north gate were already spotting movement among the brush.

"Team RWBY, I have another task for you," Hillphire said into the group's earpieces. "I need you to aid the guard in evacuating the citizens from the lower town. There is an especially large Grimm attack to the east and several dozen civilians are cut off."

"On the way!" Ruby yelled as she and the others moved.

—

Bedivere stood atop a high lamp post at the upper levels of Mistral. He had a good view of the entire southern theater. Grimm were coming in from all directions. A White Fang attack in the north was certain. He hopped down from his perch, joining Oscar, Sun, and Hollie.

"Is it our turn yet?" Sun asked him.

"Let's move to the north gate," he said as they started into a jog.

The instant they arrived at the rear lines, a number of White Fang members leapt over the walls, landing behind the gate. Bedivere and his team engaged immediately.

"Try to spare their lives!" Bedivere said, forming a line with his team as his armor exploded outward onto his body.

—

Hillphire watched from the control tower as the north gate was quickly overrun. The southern defenses against the Grimm were doing relatively well and there were no deaths among the lower town's population at all, but the city walls had already been breached at the other end and they were being led right into an ambush.

An explosion rocked the city. There was a fireball over to the north. The gate had been completely destroyed.

"Recall Teams 3 and 4 from the south gate!" he said. "Send them to the north gate immediately!"

"Yes, sir!"

"Jaune, how are things down there with your team?" he said as he looked at a terminal that monitored both of his teams' aura levels and stamina.

"We can keep going," Jaune said. "There's a small lull in the fighting right now and I'm having my team rest up as much as we can."

"How long are you expecting the fight to go on?" Weiss asked.

"We're hoping for as short as possible," Hillphire said. "But be prepared for a drawn out battle. This may spill over into tomorrow."

"We can handle it," Yang said. "Just make sure they're doing all right at the other gate."

Hillphire withheld the situation from them. There was no need to add further worry to their plate. "Roger that. Stay safe out there."

—

Bedivere's strikes were well-controlled, smashing the enemy's auras without killing them outright. He had made a promise to Blake the night before that he would do his best not to indiscriminately kill every Faunus he came across. He was more than willing to oblige; this situation was exactly like back in his own home world. His own friends had once made the mistake of rising up against Arthur, even though as king, Arthur had lifted the restrictions against magic.

"Concentrate your fire on that knight!" one of the White Fang yelled.

Bedivere looked around, spotting dozens of guns aimed directly at him. He whispered to his Nexus as quickly as he could, chanting the incantation to summon a Shield Rune. All of the guns fired, the impact from the Dust-powered projectiles sending clouds of debris flying in all directions.

Hollie looked over to her teammate. She was about to yell out his name when she figured that would be idiotic. He hadn't taught them how to be fools on the battlefield. She maintained her cover, pressing the lever on her axe to transform it into its rifle form. She rested the barrel against a half-broken wall, looking through the scope to target her enemies. There were too many of them and too few rounds in her magazine.

"Can you see if he's all right?" Oscar asked, pressing himself up against the wall beside her.

"Too much smoke," she said, wiping a streak of sweat off of her face. "Where's Sun?"

"Right here," he said, joining the two. "Damn it, he's not dead, is he?"

"Hang on, I'm picking up movement."

"Tsunami Rune!" a cry came from the middle of the debris cloud. A pulse of energy blew the dust away, revealing Bedivere standing in the middle of a blast crater, his claymore thrust into the ground, hand up in the air. His fist glowed blue with the power of a rune. " _Frostatem_!"

Each of the White Fang was struck by an omni-directional burst of ice beams, some of them frozen to the ground while others had the energy sucked right out. Bedivere prepared to face other White Fang who had come to replace their downed comrades. Sun stood right next to him, his staff ready for battle.

"You okay?" he asked.

"I'll be fine," Bedivere said. "What about you? You're fighting against your friends."

"These guys aren't my friends."

"Traitor!" one of the White Fang shouted at him.

"You're the traitor, you idiot. Don't you realize Adam's just gonna start a war that will kill everyone?"

—

More Grimm poured into the lower town, including larger Alpha variants of Beowolves and Creeps. Teams RWBY and JNPR held their own against the onslaught, but with the evacuation only halfway finished, there were bound to be casualties.

"Team JNPR," Hillphire said into his microphone. "I need you to report inside the city."

"What's wrong?" Jaune said.

"A number of White Fang have breached the walls."

"What's going on back there?" Nora said.

"The enemy likely has their forces concentrated at the north gate," Penny said. "Team RWBY, can you handle the Grimm down here?"

"We'll take care of it!" Ruby said, slicing through two Ursas at the same time.

"Go and help the philosophers!" Weiss said.

"Affirmative!" Penny said, leading the way back to the city.

—

Bedivere and Sun had just defeated several White Fang without killing a single one. Unfortunately, this had the side effect of making their numbers effectively limitless. After recovering, old enemies would return to face them again.

"We're not gonna get anywhere like this," Sun said.

"I'm not killing any Faunus today," Bedivere said.

"Yeah, me neither."

One of the White Fang leaped at them from above, but he was knocked out of the sky by a powerful shot.

"Much appreciated!" Sun said into his microphone.

—

"Nice shot," Oscar said to Hollie.

"You know it," she said.

Two White Fang landed near them. Oscar managed to fend them off for a while before Hollie transformed her rifle back into an axe to join him.

"You good?" she said to her partner.

"Yeah," he said. "I've got the hang of this. I mean I've got the Yang of this."

They both shared a chuckle before proceeding with the fight.

—

Two hours had come and gone since the White Fang began their assault. The Grimm onslaught at the southern gate would not let up even for a moment and that prevented the city's defenses from responding to the crisis at the north gate, where the White Fang had steadily gained ground. Among the weapons brought into the campaign was a massive howitzer loaded with powerful Dust shells, which made quick work of even the turrets and automated defenses Hillphire and his team had set up.

The blacksmith stared at the monitors for some time, trying to figure out a way to stop the enemy's advances. They couldn't take Team RWBY off of the south gate defenses without it falling to the Grimm completely. There were other teams of Huntsmen along with individual mercenaries aiding in the defense as well, but the intense training Bedivere had put them through placed Team RWBY and JNPR and the others at a level that made them invaluable against the enemies they now faced.

"Team JNPR, what's your status?" Hillphire said into his microphone.

"We have repelled the White Fang inside the city walls for the time being," Penny said. "However, they will likely attempt another incursion as soon as they have recovered."

"This is all we can do if we're only going for incapacitation," Ren said.

"Take a breather," Hillphire said to the team. "This battle looks like it's gonna be pretty drawn out. Team RWBY, status?"

"The Grimm attacks have slowed down," Weiss said, panting. "We're taking a short break, too, but honestly, with all of those explosions happening inside the city, we're starting to get a little worried."

"Bedivere and his team have the north gate handled," Hillphire lied. "Have faith in your fellow Huntsmen."

"It's hard to have faith with all this shit going on," Yang said.

Hillphire went to another microphone, one that connected him directly with Hollie and only her. "Are you there?" he said.

"I'm hearing you loud and clear," Hollie said, taking a number of shots against several distant White Fang who were engaging Sun and Bedivere in combat.

"I think it's time to hear you roar."

"I've been waiting for you to say that."

She packed up her rifle into its guitar form, darting with Oscar to a group of beleaguered guardsmen and Huntsmen. Nearly all of them recognized her from the festival a few days ago. Just seeing her with them like this was enough to bring comfort to their hearts, but none of them could have prepared for the effects of her Semblance. She lightly strummed her guitar strings before descending into classical plucking. When she was sure she had the group's attention, she began singing, concentrating on her fellow defenders of Mistral.

—

Team RWBY sat down together on a bench, taking a short break from fighting the endless waves of Grimm. It wasn't even noon yet and already they along with their fellow guards were starting to get worn down. Out of nowhere, they began to hear Hollie's voice. It wasn't coming through their headsets, but rather from all around, floating in the spaces between them and bolstering their spirits. They looked to one another, remembering Bedivere's words.

"We give each other strength," Yang said, to which the other three nodded.

"Let's do this!" Ruby said, deploying her scythe and leading the charge back into battle.

Meanwhile, Team JNPR also looked up toward the sky, their eyes closed as Hollie's song enveloped them. Even though she was far away, deep within the city, her voice and music took hold of their very souls, brightening the fires that burned within. In mere moments, their strength had been fully replenished.

"Ready, team?" Jaune asked.

"Armed and ready!" Penny said.

"Let's go bash some heads!" Nora said.

"Lead the way," Ren said.

—

Hollie's voice reached far across the battlefield of Mistral, touching the hearts of every single person present, even the White Fang who were attacking. But instead of having their spirits lifted, doubts were cast in their mind, doubts as to whether they were in the right at all or if they were simply misguided.

 _It feels like we're finally unbroken_

 _It feels like we're back from the dead_

 _Our strength back and confidence growing_

 _Out of our way_

 _We are armed and ready_

"Armed and ready!" Bedivere listened as the surrounding guardsmen and Huntsmen and Huntresses chanted along with Hollie's song. He allowed a grin to form on his face before leaping up to the highest building he could find.

He targeted the White Fang's artillery formation, focusing on the one in the very center, the largest and most powerful. He hit the safety lever on his claymore's pommel before swinging it three times over his head and pulling the trigger, hurling the sword out at his target. The resulting explosion blew a crater in the ground, completely destroying the large artillery cannon in the center and severely damaging the rest. He watched as several White Fang were thrown in all directions by the blast. Their auras faded, but they were otherwise unharmed.

He leaped back down to the street, drawing his katana to engage a number of White Fang along the way. The newfound strength granted to him by Hollie's song was enough to enable him to completely destroy all of their auras with a single strike each. Of course, the sword's own incredible strength added to this ability. Hillphire certainly was an engineering genius.

Once he was within the fifty-meter recovery radius, he sheathed his katana and held up his right hand, concentrating on his claymore. It shot back up into the air, reassembling itself before soaring back to his hand.

"Nice trick!" Sun said, rejoining him as a number of White Fang confronted them.

"Go to Hillphire if you want your own," Bedivere said with a chuckle.

"Nah. I like my staff being simple."

"Simple weapons for simpletons."

"Psh. Simple also has the least probability of breaking down."

"Perhaps we were wrong about you. You may very well be a true member of the Philosopher Team."

"Go Team HOBS!" Hollie said into her headset.

"And there she goes," Sun said.

—

Hollie's song was enough to turn the tide in Mistral's favor. The Grimm's numbers at the south gate had dwindled to intermittent attacks thanks to the spirit-lifting effects of Hollie's Semblance, which also seemed to last for quite some time. The White Fang's spirits had simultaneously been damaged and it seemed like the battle would be won, at least until Adam put the second phase of their plan into motion.

Unbeknownst to Hillphire and the rest of his planning committee, the White Fang had managed to build tunnels that ran underneath the city, tunnels which now housed countless Grimm. They had gone somewhat dormant since the city's spirits had been lifted, but hope is something that is broken all too easily. It only took one explosion to spread panic among the citizens and the Grimm began pouring directly into the city from the newly made cave on the mountainside directly in the center of Mistral.

Bedivere and his team ran straight to the breach to try and put a stop to the incursion, but there were so many that even Bedivere's incredible fighting prowess was not enough to plug the leak completely. Many more spilled past the team, entering houses and shops and causing general havoc everywhere.

"Hillphire!" Bedivere yelled into his radio.

"Already sending Team JNPR to you," Hillphire replied.

"All right. Send as many guards as you can to mop up the ones getting past my team!" He faced Hollie and Oscar. "Sun and I can handle things here for the time being! Go and save as many of the civilians as you can!"

They nodded before leaving his side to try and save the people. Fortunately, JNPR hadn't been far away and their arrival managed to slow the outpour of Grimm to a manageable extent, but still there were far too many and their stamina could only last for so long.

—

With all of the defenders concentrated on the leak, now was the time for Adam to put his plan into motion. That knight would never leave the citizens to die, and with Team RWBY out at the south gate defending against another Grimm onslaught, this would be the perfect time to coordinate an assault.

"It's time," Adam said to his associates. "Let's go finish this once and for all."

"Don't act like this was all your idea," Dr. Watts said to him. "Most of the planning was done by none other than yours truly."

"Fine. It's not like I give a shit about any of this anyway. I just want Haven Academy to fall. If all of Mistral falls with it, well, that's just icing on the cake."

"I do appreciate such single-minded focus. Leave the grand planning to those such as myself."

"If we weren't allies, I would've gutted you already."

"Oh, but you couldn't. Because I'm the most valuable ally you have, second only to the Madam herself."

"Listen, buddy, I don't give a fuck about you or Salem or anything else. I just want to see the entire human race fall."

"Yes, yes, of course." Dr. Watts turned to Lionheart, who was cowering in the corner. "Now, Leonardo, watch as your glorious city and its Haven Academy fall in spectacular fashion."

"That little red bitch is mine," Tyrian said, playing with his new tail.

"I will take care of both the blonde one and the Faunus girl at the same time," Hazel said.

"That's fine," Adam said. "The most important task is always up to me anyway. I'll make quick work of the princess before her precious knight can even get to her."

"And I shall remain here," Dr. Watts said. "As the brains of the operation, it is imperative that I coordinate our efforts and ensure our victory."

"You do whatever the hell you want."

"Certainly. I also wish to see with my own eyes the face of this cowardly lion as all of Mistral falls to the White Fang and to the Grimm."

—

"How many was that now?" Yang said as she killed another Ursa Grimm.

"I dunno," Blake said. "Five hundred?"

"More like five million," Ruby said. "I'm getting hungry!"

"You're worse than Nora," Weiss said, projecting a glyph and sending out an explosion that consumed a group of Beowolves at once.

Without warning, something flew out of the cloud of debris. Yang barely blocked the punch, which was strong enough to jar her bones, making her forearms hurt, even though her aura was fully active. The man immediately attacked Blake as well. Before Weiss and Ruby could help, another enemy, one with a scorpion tail, joined in on the attack. Ruby recognized the man as the same one who had poisoned Qrow the last time they had encountered each other.

"You cut off my tail, you little bitch!" Tyrian screamed at Ruby as he engaged her in a relentless assault. "Now I'm gonna kill you with my new one!"

"Ruby!" Yang cried out before moving to aid her sister. Hazel, the large man who had attacked her and Blake, blocked her path.

"Sorry, but you'll be taking me on in this fight," he said.

Yang and Blake looked at each other before engaging at the same time. As Yang caught Hazel's attention, Blake tried to get through, but he was surprisingly fast for his size, blocking both from moving forward.

Meanwhile, Weiss prepared to aid Ruby, but before she could project her first glyph, another assailant leapt at her from the distance. She turned to redirect her attack at him and he drew his sword, allowing it to absorb all of the energy.

Yang recognized the scenario. This was the same man that had taken her arm. "Weiss," she said into her headset. "Whatever you do, you need to dodge his sword."

"What's wrong?" Weiss said.

"Adam's Semblance allows him to absorb all the energy of your attack and return it to you," Blake said.

"Great," Weiss said, squaring off with the new leader of the White Fang.

"Now, Princess," he said, reaching for his sword. "I'll make this quick if you don't move."

"Like hell I'm gonna let that happen."

He dashed forward, drawing his sword simultaneously. Weiss was quick enough to project a glyph onto him that slowed him down before she created a number of other glyphs, allowing her to escape his mighty slash, which was powerful enough to cut three buildings in half without even making physical contact with them.

Weiss reassessed her situation. Of the four, she was probably the most outmatched as far as raw power was concerned, but she wasn't going down without a fight. Then again, Adam was more than likely aware of her Semblance and would find a way to overcome her.

"Adam!" Blake screamed out to him.

"The time for talk is over, Blake," he responded to her, turning to face Weiss. "You chose your place, sided against your own kind."

"That's not true! _You_ are the one betraying the Faunus! Can't you see Salem is just using you?"

"You've got it all wrong. Salem's the one that will give us the opportunity to gain our revenge."

He resumed his assault against Weiss.

—

"This is not good," Hillphire said as he monitored the progress of the battle from the tower. "Hollie, can you use your Semblance again?"

"No," she replied. "Not for a while. I reached out to more people than I usually do and I have to give it a rest or bad things might happen."

"Bad things?"

"Yeah, like, reversal of morale."

"Okay, yeah, that's not good."

He stood in thought for a moment. He still had an option available to him, but that meant facing the Grimm head-on. He wasn't ready for that, not after the trauma he had faced as a child. Witnessing one's entire family torn to pieces by Grimm sticks with a person for life. Survivor's guilt only made that ten times worse for him. It was the reason he had discovered such a passion for engineering all of these defensive implements. He was the only survivor of his village. It was his duty to defend the human race.

And now was the time for him to prove his worth, that he had what it took to be the shield against the Grimm.

"Bedivere," he said into his microphone. "Stand by."

"What is going on?" Bedivere replied.

"Teams RWBY, JNPR, and HOBS, I will be leaving the tower now to send backup to the Grimm breach at the mountainside."

"Are you sure you can do it?" Ruby yelled as she dodged Tyrian's incessant attacks.

"Yeah," Jaune said. "I mean, you've got that problem and all that!"

"I wouldn't deserve to be on a team with you guys if I couldn't at least do this," Hillphire said, preparing his equipment for battle. "Bedivere, I will be at your location in two minutes."

Two minutes was still too long. Each second Weiss spent fighting against Adam drained her of her strength. Her Semblance was much too aura-intensive and even though she spent nearly all of her time dodging his attacks, it was starting to take its toll on her.

—

"Hold this line!" Bedivere said to a line of weary and frightened men and women. "The Grimm shall not overcome us today! Stand fast and do not let this city fall!"

Hillphire arrived at his side.

"William!"

"I'll be all right," Hillphire said, panting, his hands shaking. Just seeing all of those Grimm pouring out of the hole in the mountain made his heart race. "As long as I have this, I'll be fine."

"As long as you have what?" Bedivere said as Hillphire pressed a few buttons on a large metallic wristband.

As soon as he finished inputting the commands, a massive suit of powered armor emerged from several locations on his body, primarily out of a metal backpack he wore, but also from a pair of metal boots, two metal wristbands, and a large metal belt. From these points, the suit emerged into segments before those segments connected together to articulate into joints and plates of armor.

His entire body was fully isolated from the outside world, complete with internal environmental controls. This suit would grant him total protection against not only physical hazards, but atmospheric ones as well. Every single one of these functions was bolstered by his aura. Even if that were to fail, the suit itself provided a large degree of defense.

The color scheme matched Bedivere's armor closely, with large areas bathed in white to symbolize righteousness with blue and green details for peace and harmony. His modular transforming sword also matched the colors of his armor.

"That weapon certainly is interesting," Bedivere said.

"Isn't it?" Hillphire said. "It can transform between three different forms, dual single-headed hand axes, combined together to form a large double-headed axe, or lengthened to form a great sword similar to your own. Just, without all the flying sword thing."

Bedivere chuckled. "We still need to have our duel."

"All in its time. Assuming you survive this battle, of course."

"I do consider you a fellow knight, Hillphire. Do not fall today."

"I won't."

Bedivere felt a sharp pain deep within his core and he fell to a knee, leaning against his sword.

Hillphire immediately ran to his side, scanning his body. "I detect no injuries on you."

"It's Weiss," he said. "She's in danger."

"Then, go to her!" Hillphire said as he stood between Bedivere and the Grimm. "I will take your place!"

Bedivere watched as an assortment of disposable machineguns, cannons, and missile launchers deployed from Hillphire's armor.

"Go!"

The knight gave a nod as he focused on Weiss.

—

Weiss let out a yelp as she was struck by Adam's sword. Fortunately, it hadn't been charged with power or it would have cut through both her aura and her body. She fell to the ground, tumbling several times as her aura collapsed, leaving her physical body vulnerable.

"Weiss!" Ruby yelled.

"Pay attention!" Tyrian screeched as he attacked again.

"It would've been painless if you had only stopped resisting," Adam said, standing over Weiss. "My fight isn't with you personally." He paused. "Well, maybe it is. You are a Schnee, after all, the greatest persecutor of all the Faunus. More importantly, though, is that knight of yours. He's the greatest obstacle between us and our goal."

"And what exactly is your goal?" she asked.

"For the Faunus to be recognized as what we truly are: the inheritors of this world."

"You want to subjugate the human race?"

He held up his sword, preparing to drive it down into her. "No, Princess. I want the human race _wiped out_!"

Before he could stab her, there was a shockwave originating from the sky, one that shook the mountainside, reverberating across the plains. An object was approaching them with incredible speed, faster than any Dust-powered vehicle or missile.

Adam just barely dodged the object, which wasn't an object at all, but a man. Weiss got up off the ground, dusting herself off and looking at the silhouette in the middle of the cloud of debris, which cleared up to reveal her knight, complete with shining silver armor, the gold detailing glinting in the sunlight, blue cape with the golden embroidered dragon flapping in the wind.

"Shit," Adam said, sheathing his sword. The rest of the fighting stopped as well and Team RWBY reassembled behind Bedivere while Tyrian and Hazel joined Adam. "I was hoping this would be easy. But I guess this way is better. I have to admit I've been itching to have a one-on-one with you."

Bedivere did not respond. His expression was severe. Every muscle in his body was ready to explode into action at a moment's notice. Tyrian was the first to give in to the eagerness and he vanished from where he stood, attacking the knight from above to the right. Bedivere waited until he was just within striking distance before making his move. All anyone could perceive was a blinding glint of a metallic object swinging through the air several times before Tyrian backed away, his tail once again severed at the tip. Bedivere's katana was already back in its sheath before Tyrian even landed on the ground.

"You son of a bitch!" he screamed. "I'm gonna fucking kill you!"

"Tyrian," Dr. Watts's voice sounded in his headset. "Fall back now. Without your tail, you are in a diminished combat capacity. Stay with Hazel and respond to the enemy as necessary. Let Adam take care of that knight."

"Damn you!" Tyrian yelled. "Damn you to hell!"

Bedivere closed his eyes. _You're a few centuries too late for that_ , he thought.

"That was actually pretty impressive," Adam said, clapping slowly. "But don't think I'm as much of a pushover as that crazed animal."

"You can go to hell, too!" Tyrian cursed him.

"Get Weiss out of here," Bedivere said quietly into his headset.

"Huh?" Weiss said.

"Yang, can I count on you?"

"Yeah," Yang said before picking up Weiss by the waist and backing away.

"Hey!" Weiss complained. "Put me down!"

Yang set her down as the rest of the team stopped. They were roughly fifty meters away from Bedivere now, a safe enough distance without being too far. All that would have to happen is for Weiss to get killed and Bedivere would die with her. This enemy was not above stooping to such levels. Yang and Blake had an unspoken understanding that they needed to keep their eyes open for any threats from behind. Bedivere, too, would respond quickly to any threats to her life.

"Okay, preliminaries are over," Adam said, reaching for his sword as he widened his stance.

Bedivere unsheathed his claymore, thrusting it into the ground before reaching for his own katana.

"It's time for the main event!"

Both warriors vanished in a combined gust of wind.


	29. Chapter XXIX

CHAPTER XXIX

 _Der Schatten Kehrt Zurück_

Penny and Hillphire had done most of the work keeping the Grimm from getting too far out of the hole in the mountain. Meanwhile, Nora, Ren, Jaune, Hollie, Sun, and Oscar kept the White Fang at bay, responding to each repeated incursion and saving many lives in the process.

"Let us know if you need backup!" Nora said into her microphone.

"We're good here!" Penny said, smiling as she fought alongside Hillphire, both of them gunning and hacking and stabbing their way through endless hordes of Grimm.

"Hillphire, are you gonna be all right?" Jaune asked after defeating one of the White Fang, watching as he ran off.

"Yeah," Hillphire said, panting. "As long as I am in this suit of armor, I will be fine." He glanced over at Penny, who was smiling at him. His face was enclosed in the armor, but she could sense him return a smile.

"Okay, back me up!" Penny said, deploying eight swords at once, holding two in either hand while the others floated around her.

Hillphire had upgraded this particular system, which he had given the name "Dancing Sabers." It no longer used the old scheme of wire control, thus eliminating the possibility of Penny's chassis being destroyed in the same manner. This new system operated off of the same technology as Bedivere's claymore, utilizing gravity Dust and a little of his forbidden technology to allow Penny to remotely control each sword within a certain range. In this case, her range was double that of Bedivere's claymore. Each of her swords could reach out to a hundred meters before falling out of radio range and falling to the ground.

"I'm on it!" Hillphire responded to her as he stowed his modular axes and deployed two precision rifles, taking shots at Grimm that were attacking Penny at oblique angles as she slashed her way through the ones right in front of her. His aim was perfect and her speed was incredible. Together, they formed an invincible team.

He noticed a White Fang member high up on the mountain, targeting his combat partner. He took aim with his right-hand rifle, switching the ammunition to explosive Dust, and firing. The would-be assassin was knocked right off of his perch and fell all the way down to the base of the mountain. His aura would protect him, but he was effectively out of this fight.

"I think he has better aim than you," Sun said to Hollie.

"Psh," she scoffed. "Only because he has a computer-aided guidance system."

"Wow, that sounds like something he would say."

"Well, that's what he actually calls it."

They both shared a chuckle before engaging a number of Grimm that had leaked past Penny and Hillphire's wall of projectiles.

"You, you, with me!" Jaune said, sheathing his sword as he directed two strong-looking civilians to help him.

"What do you want us to do?" one of the two men said.

"The guy in the mech is about to run out of ammo. We need to refill him ASAP."

"O-Okay, just lead the way!"

Jaune ran over to a Dust munitions tent, which contained the exact ammunition both Hillphire and Penny used in their weapons. He brought up his microphone.

"Who needs to reload first?" he said.

"I'm still good on ammo," Penny said, firing away as she leaped around and dodged, slashing through some and shooting at others.

"I'm running low," Hillphire said.

"Okay, we're taking these to the big guy first!" Jaune said to the two men as they rolled enormous carts over to where the two were fighting.

Oscar was the one close by when two White Fang members moved to attack Jaune and his two deputies.

"You're not getting past me," he said before nodding to Jaune and engaging the two White Fang.

In seconds, they had reloaded all of Hillphire's ammunition cases with an assortment of Dust powder and crystals. He was back in the fight in no time. Nora and Ren joined in while Penny also re-supplied. She giggled as some of the Dust powder fell down her back.

"That tickles," she said.

"You can feel that?" Jaune said, closing up the ammunition pack on her shoulder.

"Mm-hmm. Liam did everything he could to make me more human, including the ability to feel ticklish and also pain."

"You picked pain, too? You're worse than Yang!"

"It's not a problem in the middle of combat if that's what you're worried about. I can shut down the sensation manually and it instead registers as damage to a certain component or a part of my chassis."

He chuckled. "Well, I wasn't exactly worried about whether or not you were combat ready. I mean, you've proven that you are. I just wondered, why pain?"

"Will not feeling pain make me complete?"

He watched as she turned back to the battle, deploying two guns from her shoulders to fire away at distant enemies while using her swords to slash away at nearby ones. He found himself smiling as he returned to the battle as well, fighting alongside Nora and Ren.

—

The sound of steel clanging against steel echoed throughout the lower town as Bedivere and Adam continued their high-speed duel, which at times was so fast that none of the spectators were able to see their movement.

They got into a blade deadlock, facing off with each other. Adam was grinning. He couldn't deny that he was enjoying this. Bedivere's face, on the other hand, was blanketed with a severe glare.

"Oh, c'mon," Adam said. "You can't tell me you're not having fun right now."

Bedivere pulled away momentarily before pushing forward again, slashing and missing as Adam jumped into the air to deliver an overhead strike, which Bedivere parried before starting another high-speed clash of swords.

Weiss watched with both hands clasped in front of her. Even his mock duel with Qrow hadn't reached this level of ferocity. He wasn't one to play around in a fight either. The fact that he hadn't defeated Adam yet made her sick with worry.

"Damn it," Blake said. "If only I could get him to see the truth."

"He's past that," Yang said. "There's nothing you can do now."

"I know. But still. There's something I _could have_ done."

"No use dwelling on the past now, hon."

Meanwhile, Ruby turned to Weiss, who had let her hands fall back to her sides. Ruby looked down before reaching to her, holding her hand in hers. Weiss gave her a quick glance before returning her attention to the fight. Ruby wanted to cheer their knight on, but with the way things were going and with the fact that he hadn't spoken a word since the fight began, she figured it would be better to keep her mouth shut. Not to mention she needed to stay alert in case anything attacked them from the sides and behind.

What no one knew was that Bedivere, at this very moment, struggled to keep sealed something that hadn't seen the light of day in ages. It was something that would allow him to end this fight in the blink of an eye, but that he would never allow to the surface ever again. Even now, it called to him, tempting him with the prospect of using its power to accomplish his goals, to defeat this enemy, and to keep Weiss safe.

The worst part was that this was no mere temptation. It was fact.

—

Jaune looked over his shoulder as something called out to him.

"What's wrong?" Ren asked him.

"Huh?" he said. "Oh, just hearing things, that's all."

He chuckled. "You picked a crappy time to get distracted."

"Hey, it's not like I chose to hear voices, okay?"

Everyone was dumbfounded at the sheer amount of Grimm pouring out of this hole. Where in the world did the White Fang gather them all up from? This was like the Fall of Beacon all over again, with Grimm endlessly pouring in from some unknowable location. This might have been one of the powers available to Salem, or some as of yet undiscovered source. All that theorizing was useless, though, in the face of these odds.

"Penny, Hillphire, switch with us," Ren said.

"I'm a machine," Penny said. "I do not get tired."

"Well, you might not," Nora said, "but it looks like Will is getting tired."

"I'm fine," Hillphire said. "If I leave the battlefield now, I will never be able to overcome my fear."

"All right, then," Ren said. "We'll fight alongside you."

Jaune looked over his shoulder again.

"Jaune?"

"Yeah," he said. "No, it's nothing."

Ren looked him as he moved to join them and then stopped again, looking for something behind him. Without warning, Jaune broke into a sprint toward the mountain.

"Jaune, where are you going?" Ren called out.

—

"It looks like you're nearing your limit," Adam said with a grin, squaring off with Bedivere. "I guess killing your princess wasn't necessary after all. I get to kill you with my own hands and then I get to kill the Schnee heiress. This is gonna be a good day."

Bedivere's hand shook, the hand that contained the Nexus. "Be still, damn it," he said.

"Huh?"

The knight closed his eyes, attempting to fight against the Nexus. The only reason it would stir at this level is if it sensed his impending death. As an inanimate thing whose only concern was its own survival, it would do anything and everything at its disposal to ensure that he didn't die, thus preserving its own existence.

"Are you sick or something?" Adam said. "Don't tell me you're getting the jitters. After everything I've heard about you, I thought you'd actually be a challenge, but now here you are, shaking in your—"

Bedivere blasted forward so fast as to conjure up a sonic boom. The force of his blade's clash against Adam's created a shockwave that knocked over buildings and forced spectators to shield their faces from the dust and debris.

"Good," Adam said. "You still have some fight left in you. I guess I could keep myself entertained for a little longer. I was actually thinking about having a little fun with your princess myself. Now that you've got me all excited, I'm definitely gonna take my time with her."

Something deep within Bedivere began to stir, something he had not felt in ages. He had sealed this thing up ages ago, this thing which caused everything he had once loved and fought for to shrivel up into something completely unrecognizable. With each passing second, the Nexus on his arm began to undo the seal that took him years to erect around that abomination.

 _Damn it,_ he thought as he struggled against Adam's sword. _Not now!_

—

Jaune panted as he climbed the mountain. The thing that beckoned him up there was shining brightly. It seemed only he could see the shine, though. No one else paid any attention to it. As he neared the summit, the call became strong and stronger. It was some kind of pulsing. No, it was a heartbeat. It was definitely a heartbeat.

A Beowolf roared at him as it knocked him off of a ledge down to another. He had gotten lucky. Had he missed this platform, he would've plummeted to his death. He drew his sword, fighting and killing the Beowolf before continuing his ascent.

—

Adam managed to land a powerful strike at the perfect angle, sending Bedivere flying several yards away. The knight landed on his feet, but Adam was already on him, nailing him with a flurry of slashes, some of which Bedivere failed to block. His shoulder armor was torn off, sent flying away.

"This is it!" Adam said, reading for a powerful thrust.

"Shield Rune!" Bedivere said quickly, summoning a powerful barrier to block Adam's strike. The force was enough to shatter the barrier and push him back. Before Adam could resume his attack, Bedivere began chanting into his right hand.

Adam did nothing to stop his incantation, grinning instead as he awaited whatever attack Bedivere had to throw at him next.

"Inferno Rune!" Bedivere shouted. " _Versengte Erde_!"

Adam drew his sword halfway, allowing it to absorb the entirety of that fire attack that should have incinerated him and everything behind him for miles. The conflagration was so intense that he struggled to maintain his footing as the inferno was sucked into his blade. He returned the sword to its scabbard as he felt the raw power pulsating in his hands. He glanced up at the knight, who was horrified.

"My turn," Adam said as he swung out his sword, unleashing the full power it had just consumed.

The complete strength of the _Scorched Earth_ Bedivere had projected was returned to him full force. He could not dodge this one, not with Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang behind him. Had they not been there, he would have quickly leaped over the attack and stuck his sword in the back of Adam's head, but not now. There was not enough time to erect a barrier either. He would take this attack with nothing but his sword and his body.

He held up the unbreakable katana that Hillphire had forged for him, extending his power into it to reinforce its durability. The blade cut through the massive fire wave as it melted the sand in its path to glass. But the power he had put into that attack was too much. The unbreakable had been broken and the fire wave was now impacting Bedivere's body with full force.

"No!" Weiss cried out. "Bedivere!"

"Stay back!" Yang said, grabbing her by the hand, pulling her entire team and holding them close together to keep them all within the tiny clearing that Bedivere's body created in the middle of this firestorm.

Weiss watched with tears in her eyes as Bedivere's armor was stripped from his body piece by piece until there was nothing left. The fire attack had dissipated, but he was now completely defenseless. He held up his hand, calling his nearby claymore to his side.

"Ready for more?" Adam said with a grin.

The Nexus was more active now than ever and Bedivere fought a two front war, one against Adam and one within his own body. This thing was never a part of him to begin with, only latching itself on to him and taking the form of his original arm. And now that it was fighting for its own survival, he struggled with it to maintain control over his body.

—

Jaune continued to climb up the mountain, even though his body wanted to give out. He could never hope to explain this to any of his friends, but he needed to get up there. He had long since turned off his radio to stop the incessant calls from Nora and Ren and Penny and Hillphire and everybody else who had seen him run off, leaving Mistral altogether to climb this mountain.

There it was. He was finally close enough to see it, its brightness outshining the sun itself. There was no way that he was the only one who could see it. If no one else saw this intense radiance, then it was calling out to him specifically.

 _Jaune..._

"Who is it?" he asked.

 _Be not afraid..._

"Afraid of what?"

Just then, something fell from the sky before him. It looked like a Grimm, but not exactly. Whatever it was took the form of a knight. The armor was similar to Bedivere's with the exception that it was completely black, so black as to reflect almost no light. It was like staring at a walking shadow with no discernable source.

"Is this a test?" Jaune said, drawing his sword. "I don't plan on failing it!"

—

Bedivere let out a cry that echoed throughout the valley as he fell to his knees, grabbing his right arm, that which contained the Nexus.

"No!" he shouted as the Nexus came to life, projecting itself into the air before assaulting his body with spears of light.

"Bedivere!" Weiss cried before lunging forward.

"Weiss! Stay back! Don't come any closer to me!"

She put her hands to her mouth as her knight continued to wail in agony, his cries worse than anything she'd ever heard. Even the tortured voices of those who fell victim to the Grimm could not match the sheer terror behind Bedivere's screams.

He fell to all fours, his wailing transforming into what sounded like vicious growling and snarling, mingled with the cries of a man drowning in his own blood. Something dripped from his mouth, something black and viscous. The same fluid dripped from his eyes as he began clawing at his own body, tearing away at his flesh. Strips of skin fell to the ground, but there was no blood. Only that same black stuff that had been dripping out of his mouth and eyes and ears.

"What the hell is going on?" Yang said. She and the rest of Team RWBY had their eyes and mouths wide open. They had never seen anything like this before and it was now happening to one of their own.

Even from this distance, Weiss could feel something terrible surfacing from within her knight. The Connection Semblance he had with her normally did not allow her to perceive what was in his heart, but if this thing was strong enough to reverse the link, it must have been bad.

"Bedivere," she whispered, sensing the extreme darkness growing. "What's happening to you?"

"Fuck this," Adam said, dashing forward to strike.

"Adam, no!" Dr. Watts shouted into the radio.

But instead of hitting his target, Adam's sword smashed into something invisible, a barrier of some sort. Bedivere looked up at him with animalistic rage on his face, his mouth and chin stained with that black goo, blackened tears streaming down the sides of his face.

A shockwave pulsed from Bedivere's body, throwing Adam back to where he started. That power just now was unbelievable. Everything Bedivere had been throwing at him up until this point paled in comparison. And now, without even putting a shred of effort into it, the knight had repelled him with a burst of invisible power.

"What the hell was that?" Adam said into his microphone.

"I don't know," Dr. Watts said, "but I think we need to retreat."

"Retreat? Are you insane?"

"It is precisely because I am not insane that I suggest we call off this whole operation immediately. This is something we did not expect and with the amount of power emanating from his body, I don't think we stand a chance against him."

Bedivere's screaming and snarling turned into what sounded like angry groaning, mixed with somewhat human vocalizations. A black mist seemed to float from his body, covering the ground in an opaque fog of pure shadow. He began to stand up, each movement twitchy and painful. His groaning and snarling transformed into soft chuckling before gradually increasing in volume and intensity.

His laughter had reached the stage of pure mania when he suddenly dug both hands into his chest, shocking everyone watching, including Adam and his cohorts. Weiss had a hand over her mouth, her eyes wide open as he began to tear away at his own flesh, his fingers deep enough to reach all the way to the bone.

Sternum and ribs cracked and snapped as he tore his own flesh open, exposing his chest cavity to the air. His beating heart was visible for a few seconds before he finally exploded into something that cannot be described in human words, for the light that emerged from his body was not light, but darkness, a shadow that consumed everything around him, blinding every eye that it touched.

The shadow eventually cleared away, revealing a fully intact Bedivere standing in the middle of the field. His flesh had been completely restored. Even the black clothing on him, from the long coat down to the boots, was brand new.

"What the actual fuck?" Adam said.

Weiss looked on at her knight. On the outside it was certainly him, but something was off. Something was terribly off. The light she had once seen in him was gone, replaced by an unfathomable darkness so dark that it actively sucked away at the light around him.

No one else could perceive this, of course. The only thing the others saw was a fully repaired Bedivere, standing calmly, his face devoid of any emotions.

"Hmph," Adam grunted before launching another assault. Instead of smashing into a barrier this time, his body stopped mid-flight.

Bedivere was pointing a finger at him. His face was still emotionless, disinterested even. Adam grunted as he struggled to move his body, but he was completely paralyzed. He watched as Bedivere tilted his head a little bit to the right before making a flicking motion with his fingers. A powerful, invisible force smashed into Adam, knocking the wind out of him and hurling him back to crash into what was left of a house.

"Yes, this seals it," Dr. Watts said into his team's microphones. "We need to get out of here right now."

Adam struggled to get up out of the debris. With the flick of a finger, this incarnation of Bedivere had cut down his power to half. He dashed at the knight, against Dr. Watts's orders. He slashed over and over again, but Bedivere blocked each and every one of his strikes with nothing more than his finger.

"What the fuck!" Adam yelled as he squared off with him. "What the hell are you?"

Bedivere reached out with his right arm to the side. All sorts of surrounding debris—broken concrete, glass, wiring, plastic—came together to form an amalgamation of trash shaped into a gigantic hammer. Bedivere moved his hand up and the hammer followed suit. Adam stared up at the head of the hammer, which was about to come down on him hard.

He rolled out of the way, kicking off the ground hard enough to dodge the hammer's head, which exploded into its constituent parts as it crashed into the ground. Bedivere was watching him, awaiting his next move. He growled, ready to attack again, when he finally gave in to Dr. Watts's incessant yelling through his earpiece. This fight would have to wait. He couldn't die here now, not without seeing his goal to its end.

He turned to leave, but nearly fell back when Bedivere was in front of him, standing between him and his allies. He glanced back momentarily. He wasn't seeing things. He really had moved from over there to over here in less time than it took to blink. The most frightening part was that he had made no noise in the process. As far as Adam could tell, nothing around was disturbed by his movement, not the dirt nor the air itself.

"How the hell?" he managed.

Bedivere's stare was unbroken, still masked with disinterest and void of emotion.

"Why the hell won't you say anything?"

Bedivere held out a finger, which Adam looked at tentatively. This was the same finger that had completely paralyzed him and hurled him across the field. Bedivere came closer and closer. Adam thought about fleeing, but part of him realized it was pointless. He stared in utter horror as Bedivere's finger came closer and closer to his chest. He was breathing hard when his finger finally touched him. But nothing happened.

"W-What the fuck?" Adam said quickly.

Bedivere's only response was a smile, one that sent a cold sweat all over Adam's body. The leader of the White Fang backed away a little bit, watching as Bedivere let his hand fall back to his side. The knight watched as he slowly made his way to his allies before finally breaking into a sprint.

The cloaked airship floated off into the sky, taking with it Dr. Watts, Adam, Hazel, and Tyrian. Bedivere watched as it flew away.

"Hey!" Ruby said, leading the way as she and the rest of Team RWBY went to join their companion. "How come you just let them go like th—"

She shrieked as a powerful, invisible force slammed into her, sending her tumbling all over the ground.

"Ruby!" Yang shouted, running to her sister.

"Ow," Ruby said, rubbing her head.

"Was that him?" Blake asked.

Weiss had lagged behind the rest of the team, hesitant about approaching him. That thing she sensed in him was so heavy it threatened to drag her down past the ground into the depths of some place she could not even imagine.

The other three girls watched as Bedivere slowly turned around to face them. His visage was once again in a tranquil, almost disinterested state.

"What's your problem?" Yang said to him. "I know Ruby can be pretty annoying, but what the f—"

Another burst of force emanated from his body and the trio shielded themselves against it. They barely managed to keep from getting blown away, although being this far from him was probably the main reason they were able to stand their ground.

"Hey!" Ruby yelled. "Stop that! It's not funny anymore!"

A smirk grew on his face as he started walking forward, his fancy long coat blowing in the wind along with his ear-length brown hair.

Blake stood between him and her friends. "I don't think that's the Bedivere we know," she said.

The others turned to her.

"Haven't you felt it? There's something completely different about him."

Weiss knew exactly what she was referring to. Her friend might not be able to see that shadow that now surrounded his body, but Blake's senses as a Faunus were keen. She could pick up on the most subtle of clues, from his posture to his voice and facial expressions, probably even his sweat and other hormones that might be floating around him now.

Ruby's heart sank as his eyes fixed on her. "What? Why me?" she said.

Without warning, he dashed forward, grabbing her by the throat in an instant. Yang and Blake called out her name before attempting to help her, but with just one punch and a kick, he sent them flying off, breaking their auras with a single strike each. Weiss tried to help as well, but she was petrified in place by this immense weight. She could only watch helplessly as her knight continued to grasp her friend by the throat.

Ruby struggled to break free. Even that old technique her sister had taught her wasn't working. But if he were this strong, why hadn't he snapped her neck yet? He brought her closer. She turned her face away from him as he pressed his own face against hers. Something inside her began to hurt. It was a deep, blunt pain, as if someone had punched her in the gut. And then there was a weight that began to press down on her.

"Bedivere," she barely managed. "Please..."

An explosion knocked Ruby away from Bedivere. She tumbled to the ground, landing right next to Weiss, who was suddenly freed from whatever it was that gripped her. She knelt down beside Ruby, who couldn't stop coughing and wheezing.

"I need to stop getting caught like that," Ruby said, taking Weiss's hand.

"Ruby, I'm sorry," Weiss said.

"What are you apologizing for?"

"For him."

They looked out to Bedivere, who was inside that cloud of debris. There was something else in there with him. No, it was some _one_.

"Who is that?" Blake said as she and Yang rejoined the team.

"I've been waiting for you," Bedivere finally spoke. There was no trace of his usual accent. "I could feel that light from all the way at the top of the mountain."

"Oh, is that right?" said a familiar voice from within the cloud of dust.

Team RWBY watched in astonishment as the dust cleared away to reveal Jaune, whose sword was sheathed. In his hand was another sword that they hadn't seen in a long time.

"I thank you for retrieving Caliburn for me," Bedivere said. "This saves me a significant amount of time."

"What happened to your accent?" Jaune said.

"My accent? Oh, you must be referring to 'his' accent."

"His?"

"Yes, that virtuous knight you've spent the last several weeks with."

"What's he talking about?" Yang said.

Weiss's suspicions were confirmed. This thing before them now was not Bedivere, at least not the Bedivere she knew and loved. The puzzling thing was that he exuded so much of her knight. He might as well be Bedivere, just slightly different.

"If you're not Bedivere," Jaune said, raising Caliburn for battle, "then who the hell are you?"

"I suppose you could call me his shadow," he said. "I am the part of him that exists just beneath the surface, the aspect of him that he denies even exists. I am who he is ashamed to be."

"His shadow, huh?"

The shadow raised his arm to call the claymore, which flew through the air and into his hand.

"That's not right," Weiss said. "Hillphire designed that sword to respond specifically to Bedivere's soul alone."

"Which means..." Yang started.

"No! That's _not_ him!"

"You passed the test Caliburn confronted you with," Bedivere's shadow said, holding out his sword to the side. "That means you should be able to at least entertain me for a while."

"I'm not here to entertain you," Jaune said, assuming a fighting stance and holding Caliburn up. "I'm here to save my friend."

"Do you truly believe Bedivere is capable of reaching salvation?"

"Of course I do. Otherwise, I wouldn't be standing here."

The shadow let out a chuckle. "Then, show me your resolve!"


	30. Chapter XXX

CHAPTER XXX

 _Leuchten_

Jaune stood before the black knight that Caliburn presented before him. This was a test to prove his worth, to demonstrate that he had the right to bear Caliburn. Only those of great strength and with pure and resolute hearts could hold the sword of the Once and Future King, but not because the sword would reject the unworthy. Rather, Caliburn, like the country, reflected the state of the King. If the King was ill, the country would suffer. When the King was healthy, the country prospered. In the same way did Caliburn reflect the state of the King's heart. A blackened heart would corrupt Caliburn and cause a great plague to befall the land.

"All right," Jaune said, holding his sword at the ready. "Here I go!"

He exchanged blows with the black knight, failing miserably after a single bout. The knight didn't look like it was going to back down, though. In fact, it appeared ready to kill him.

"Holy crap!" Jaune said, dodging out of the way.

His environment changed. He was no longer at the top of the mountain. Instead, he was in the middle of what looked like a tournament ground, surrounded by dozens of other knights and an enormous audience. At the grandest spectator booth sat a young king in glorious splendor, in his hands, the great sword Caliburn.

"Let the tournament begin!" the king announced.

The black knight resumed his assault, putting Jaune on the defensive. He fought valiantly, exchanging sword swings for what felt to him like an hour or maybe more, but he could never even hope to match this level of skill. He was about to give up when he heard a voice from behind him. Or was it to his left? No, it seemed to originate from all around.

"Who is that?" he mumbled as he continued to defend against the knight's onslaught.

 _Jaune, it's me_ , the voice said.

That voice. He hadn't heard it in far too long. But it was impossible. He couldn't be hearing that voice now.

 _No, Jaune, it's not impossible. It's really me._

He felt his eyes flooding. "Pyrrha?"

 _Yes, Jaune. I don't know what's allowing me to speak with you right now, but I'm here to help you._

"Help me?"

 _Caliburn has chosen you to be its bearer. You've already got what it takes to wield that sword of the Once and Future King. You only need to believe in yourself._

"But, I can't even beat this guy!"

 _Jaune, would you listen to me for once! Caliburn is no fool. It would not have chosen you if it didn't believe you had what it takes. And I would not have chosen you had I not believed in you as well!_

"Pyrrha," he managed as the tears started to overcome him.

 _Focus, Jaune! Focus on the opponent right in front of you!_

He shook his head, pushing out the tears and the doubts.

 _Now, remember what I and Sir Bedivere have taught you. You're his squire now, remember that. You have a reputation to uphold. His, too._

"Right. No pressure."

She giggled. _Your stance is too wide. You're over-thinking things again._

He narrowed his stance, the same stance Bedivere had taught him, the one that granted him the ability to respond to all threats equally without broadcasting his own intentions.

 _Good, now parry!_

He parried a swing from the black knight.

 _Counter!_

He swung in return, getting a hit on the knight's armor. It didn't do any damage at all, considering he struck the hard armor, but just the sight of the scratch on the black steel was enough to bolster his morale.

 _Good! Keep going! Use this momentum to your advantage!_

He did as she commanded, overcoming the knight's defenses, parrying, deflecting, and countering with precision.

 _Don't overextend. Make sure you're aware of your footwork. And now, go for the killing strike!_

He outmaneuvered the black knight before tripping him, standing above him with his sword's point facing downward. He looked around at the audience. They were on their feet, all except the king. This was the final test for him. And after all of Pyrrha's instruction and encouragement, he could not afford to fail it.

He thrust his sword into the ground before reaching down and helping the black knight back up onto his feet. As soon as the knight was upright, he gave Jaune a small bow of gratitude before disintegrating into dust, blowing away with the wind. He turned to the king, who was rising to his feet.

"You have done well, Sir Jaune Arc, Squire of Sir Bedivere of Kameloth," the king said. "I, Arturius Ambrosius, Pendragon of Albion, recognize your right as a true knight, and one who is worthy of bearing my sword."

A smile spread across his face as he gave the king a bow. There were footsteps behind him and he turned around. Pyrrha was walking toward him, pulling his sword out of the ground. It was all he could do to keep from breaking down.

"That was pretty impressive," she said, admiring the sword, which contained some of her within it.

"Pyrrha?" he barely managed through the tears forming in his eyes.

"Yup. It's really me."

He began breathing uncontrollably. He opened his mouth to say something else, but all that came out was a squeak.

"Yeah, I can't believe it either. I won't be here for long, though. Whatever it is that's giving me form right now, it's breaking all the rules. We'd get in so much trouble if we were still students, huh?"

He nodded, fighting with every fiber in his body to stay upright.

"Jaune," she said, reaching out and placing a hand on his cheek. "Know that I am proud of you. You've accomplished so much since we last saw each other."

"Still, I couldn't save you—"

"Shh," she said, putting a finger to his lips. "Here." She brought up his sword. "You're still gonna need this. There's more fighting up ahead of you. It's not over just yet. But remember when you hold this sword that I will be always by your side."

He nodded.

"Jaune, I have always loved you, and I always will. Take care of Ruby and everybody else for me, okay?"

"W-Where are you going?"

She began fading away. "To seek out my Destiny. Go and find yours. The path is open right before you."

"Please, Pyrrha, don't leave me again."

"You're so silly. Didn't I just say that I could never leave you?"

He let the tears fall freely.

 _Jaune_ , her voice sounded in his mind as she faded away from his sight. _Above all things, never stop moving forward._

"Goodbye, Pyrrha," he managed.

 _This isn't goodbye, Jaune. This is 'until next time.'_

With that, her voice faded away until there was nothing left. Jaune stared at the sword in his hand for a good while. He had no idea how it was that they were able to see each other again, but he didn't care about the details. He was able to see her one last time and finally have a proper goodbye. It was more than he could have asked for.

But the time for reminiscence was not now. He had a friend to save from the utter blackness within his own heart, a blackness that could not have originated from this universe. The light shining from Caliburn, that sword thrust into the stone at the top of the mountain, was the only light that could outshine that darkness now.

He continued his climb to the peak, each step strong and resolute. There was not even a hint of a doubt in his mind anymore. This was his duty. This was his destiny. To be the light shining against the darkness, this was the future that lay before him.

He stood before Caliburn, that great sword of the greatest king of all time. It shone brightly, its radiance warming his very heart. It seemed to pulse rhythmically, like a heartbeat echoing across the mountaintops. His own weapon, that sword with Pyrrha's essence contained within, pulsed simultaneously with Caliburn, as though they were two hearts beating as one, two spirits reaching out across time and space to one another.

He held out his hand, stopping for a second just before he touched that magnificent sword's handle. This was it. He was going to leave his old self behind and become the new shield to protect his friends.

He reached out, grasping the sword by its hilt. He felt an incredible power flow from the steel into his body. Surpassing that awesome strength was a sensation of tranquility that he had never known before. Merely having this sword in his hand gave him all the faith the universe could offer him and much more. Absolute confidence coursed through him like a powerful river, carving away everything negative and leaving behind only light.

He held the sword up into the air, its brilliance outshining everything else for miles. Even the sun appeared dim before its radiance. He closed his eyes as memories began to fill his mind, memories that were not his own, but of the sword itself. It had been through many terrible years and good years, but it was the good ones that counted most and made the terrible years worth it.

He saw the face of Arthur, the King who bore the sword for the longest time. He saw the many faces of the knights who fought alongside him, those most loyal retainers who stood with him until the day of his death. Among those faces was Bedivere's, that knight who was tasked with returning Caliburn to its resting place at the bottom of the lake of Avalon.

 _Bedivere_ , Jaune thought as he turned to the distance. He was down there somewhere among that black cloud spreading across the lower town.

Everything came naturally to him at this point. How to get down the mountain was not among his concerns. Rather, he trusted in the will of Caliburn and its ability to bring him to his destination. He held the sword outward in the direction of where Bedivere's presence was strongest. The sword's power lifted him up into the air and propelled him at incredible speeds to the battlefield.

He approached just in time to see him grasping Ruby by the neck, the dark aura around him starting to choke and overcome her. As he approached, he swung Caliburn with great force, breaking his stranglehold on Ruby and knocking him several feet back. He squared off with his mentor.

"I've been waiting for you," Bedivere's shadow spoke.


	31. Chapter XXXI

CHAPTER XXXI

 _Geschwärzter Verlangen_

Caliburn clashed repeatedly against Bedivere's claymore, which had been darkened completely by the blackness surrounding his body. From what Jaune could tell, only he and Weiss were able to perceive this shadowy essence. For her it was likely due to her connection to him, but for Jaune it must have been a property of Caliburn, enabling him to ascertain the true nature of things.

"I told you you've improved, haven't I?" Bedivere said, flying at him at great speeds.

"Impostor," Jaune said, equally matching this darkened version's onslaught.

"You wouldn't be capable of wielding Caliburn had you not improved. I sense an incredible resolve within you as well. I certainly was not mistaken in taking you in as my squire. Perhaps you are no longer my squire anymore. Perhaps we are now equals, both of us knights worthy of this combat now."

Jaune swung hard enough to repel Bedivere, who took the brunt of the attack with his sword. "Give me back my friend!" he demanded.

"What are you talking about, Jaune?" Bedivere said, throwing a hand on his waist. "I'm right here!"

"Screw you!" Jaune said, dashing forward, propelled by the power of Caliburn, which continued to shine brightly into the darkness cast by Bedivere's shadow. "What are you anyway?"

"I already answered your question," he said, exchanging blows with Jaune. "I am that which lies within the heart of your knight, the side of him that he refuses to acknowledge."

"That's a lie! The Bedivere I know could never harbor anything so dark inside him!"

"Exactly. The Bedivere _you_ know. I am the Bedivere you haven't met until now."

"If that's the case, then I'll just have to bash you into submission and get him right back out!"

They leapt back from each other, squaring off again. Bedivere crossed his legs, leaning against his great sword, which was thrust into the ground.

"Do you think you have what it takes?" the shadow said with a grin.

"You better believe I do!"

"Well, you'd better do it quick, then." He held up his free hand. "Because if you don't, you might lose some of your friends."

"What?"

His hand began to glow with a black light, one that slowly spread across the entire landscape. Jaune turned to Team RWBY.

"Guys!" he cried out. "Get out of here!"

"There's nowhere to run," Bedivere said.

Weiss and the others looked around. He was right. There was nowhere to flee to. The black light was steadily spreading in every direction, growing to such a size that it consumed the entire city of Mistral and everyone inside it.

"What is that?" Jaune said, the only one unaffected by the black light. He looked around. His friends had vanished. The whole environment around him had transformed into nothing more than a black void without any features. "What is happening?"

"It seems you are unaffected," Bedivere said, appearing in front of him, both hands resting on top of the hilt of his blackened sword. "I wonder if it is Caliburn which protects you, or if your heart simply is that strong. Oh, I know. It must be because of the test that Caliburn had presented you with before you arrived here. You saw her, didn't you? That beautiful warrior princess, Pyrrha Nikos."

Jaune growled, gripping Caliburn tightly.

"I saw her, too. After all, I am connected to Caliburn in a way that you could not possibly comprehend. The moment it gave life back to her, even one so ephemeral, I, too, caught a glimpse of her. I understand now why her loss was so devastating to you. She was, in more ways than one, your other half. Perhaps, your better half. Am I mistaken?"

"No," Jaune said. "You're not wrong about that at all. She really was my better half. She was everything I ought to have been and totally failed at being. But you know what, that's fine. Because that's what makes us human. To lean against one another in our greatest times of weakness, that's the true essence of humanity!"

"Yes, yes, Jaune, excellent. This is precisely how you should behave!"

"What are you doing to my friends?"

Before Bedivere could answer, Jaune found his consciousness shifting elsewhere. His vision of his opponent blurred as he marched toward him.

—

Ren and Nora continued to run through the dark, rainy town together, hiding from the Grimm. They would have fought back against them a long time ago had it not been for the fact that they were stuck in their old bodies. They were nothing more than children now.

"Ren," Nora whispered as they hid underneath a house.

"Shh," Ren said, activating his Semblance to keep them hidden from the Grimm.

They had been on the run and hiding for years now, a repeat of their old life together. Except that this time there was no escape. There were no Huntsmen or Huntresses to rescue them. They were on their own.

—

Hollie knelt down in the middle of a blood-soaked battlefield. She looked down at her hands. They were stained red. Even the downpour all around her could not wash it away. She looked around. She was completely alone. Not a soul was in sight.

It was because of her. She had lost control over her Semblance once again. She didn't even have to open her mouth to bring everyone down to such a deep pit of despair that they all turned their own weapons against themselves, ending their own lives. In the span of an instant, her power had compelled everyone around her for miles, both human and Faunus, both friend and foe, to kill themselves.

She was completely alone now, and it was all her doing.

—

Blake fell to her knees as she held Sun's lifeless body in her arms. By now she had run out of tears to shed. She was surrounded by the corpses of all her friends, Ruby, Weiss, Yang, Jaune, Nora, Ren, Penny, Hillphire, Hollie, Oscar, Qrow, Bedivere. They were all dead, all because of the stupid mistakes she had made in the past. She couldn't stop the White Fang from becoming what it became and now her friends were dead because of it.

Meanwhile, Sun remained in spirit form, screaming out to ears that could not hear him. He had sworn to stay by her side forever and that was exactly what he was doing now. His spirit remained anchored to her forever, but as close as she was, she was eternally out of his reach. He could do nothing for her. He was cursed to watch her despair for all time.

—

Oscar had permanently been sealed in the subconscious regions of his own mind, forever subservient to Ozpin, who could likewise no longer communicate with him as well. The elder assumed that Oscar had vanished, but in fact he was still there, fully conscious of everything, but trapped within his own shell.

In the meantime, Ozpin had failed his mission yet again. Salem's cunning was just too much for him to handle. Coupled with the darkness that was inherent to all human hearts, perhaps he stood no chance at victory to begin with. It's why he failed so many times in the past, after all.

—

Hillphire was surrounded by Grimm, his weapons had finally failed him, his suit of armor falling apart, his swords and guns shattering. Once again, he was a little boy, forced to watch as his family and friends were torn apart right before his eyes. He was powerless then, he was powerless now. That's when the Grimm began to ignore him. After taking everything away from him, they left him to fend for himself, the sole survivor of his village's massacre.

"Liam!" a distant voice cried out.

There was also gunfire and the sound of Grimm being slaughtered by the dozens.

"Liam! I'm on my way!"

"Penny?" Hillphire mumbled as she ran to him. Her circuitry was built to withstand this downpour, but still, there was too much wiring exposed.

"I found you, Liam!" She scanned his body. "Good, you have no physical injuries. Why are you in a young boy's body?"

"I don't know," he said.

"Never mind. My scanners indicate that your waveform is identical to one William Hillphire. I could also sense your aura from back there. But I have insufficient data to explain your current physical form."

"That's not important. Penny, just, get yourself out of here."

"Not gonna happen. Not without you, anyway. And not without the others."

"The...others?"

"That is affirmative. Not too long ago, my scanners detected a massive singularity forming just outside of Mistral. If I am not mistaken, we might be within a space-time anomaly, but the ideas behind this phenomenon are still theoretical and we have yet to actually observe anything like it. If this truly is one such event, then I have no contingency plans."

"Just...survive."

"Will do! I'll survive and I will make sure you survive with me!"

"O-Okay."

She threw his arm around her shoulder as she led him out of the town.

—

"That girl is remarkable, isn't she?" Bedivere said.

Jaune fell to the ground as his consciousness returned to his body. He gasped for air, choking on nothing tangible. The thing that robbed his lungs of air was pure despair brought on by all of those images from his friends.

"What..." he managed, "...what are you doing to them?"

"I'm not doing anything. I'm just standing here watching them, same as you."

"You...you did this!"

"Well...maybe. Somehow that Penny girl is the only one unaffected. And there's you, of course. Want to see the others?"

"Others?"

"Oh, certainly. There's that one who's special to you above all else, the one you would die for. Do you wish to see her?"

—

"Uncle Qrow!" Ruby cried as Qrow lay dying of poison. Both her father and sister also lay lifeless beside her. "Please! Don't leave me all alone!"

"Ruby," Qrow said. "You've gotta keep going on. You've still got a lot to fight for."

She pushed out tears that were masked by the downpour. "But I can't fight. Not without you guys."

"Yes, you can. You have a mission to accomplish, remember?"

She squeezed out one last tear before giving Qrow one last goodbye. She stood up, deploying her scythe to help Jaune, who was fighting against Tyrian. Things were going well for a while until Tyrian landed a blow right on Jaune's back, sending venom coursing through his body.

"No!" Ruby yelled out before impaling Tyrian right in the back of the head with her scythe. "Take that, you pig!"

She knelt down next to Jaune, who coughed out blood.

"Jaune!"

"Ruby, that's not me!" Jaune cried out. He was standing next to Bedivere, but Ruby could see neither of them. "Ruby! Snap out of it!"

"She can't hear you, you know," Bedivere said.

"This is _your_ doing! Let me go to her!"

"It's not my doing at all. Can't you see? Each one of these people is trapped within a labyrinth of their own hearts."

"What?"

"And it's not just them. All of the people of Mistral are going through something similar. Either that or they're outright dead. Who knows how a person will react to being exposed to the darkness that resides deep within them?"

"Stop this now!"

"I can't force a person to face their own fears and guilt any more than I could have forced you to overcome your own issues. You did that on your own."

"Why are you doing this?"

"Why? Why not?"

"What kind of answer is that?"

"Never mind. You still haven't seen the most exciting one of out all of them."

—

Yang panted as she ran through the stone halls of the castle. She went from room to room, searching for her friends and her sister.

"Ruby!" she called out. "Weiss! Blake! Goddammit, is anyone here?"

"Yang?"

She gasped, running ahead. Bedivere barely stopped himself from crashing into her.

"Are you all right?" he asked her, holding up his torch to see her face.

"Jeez, you scared the crap outta me!"

"My apologies."

"Have you seen any of the others?"

"No, I have not. I was going to ask you the same."

"Damn it." She threw her head back, wiping the sweat off her face with her hand before letting out a heavy sigh. "Where the hell could they have all gone? And what the fuck is up with this place? It's just like—"

"Just like the castle."

"Yeah, exactly! Hell, it's even in the exact same form!"

"I suggest we get some rest for a little bit before we move on."

"No way, I need to find my sister."

"You're no good to her in your current state. Come, let us find a couch at least."

They wandered around the halls for a while before Yang tried a door, which opened. She gawked at her surroundings. The door had opened into her dormitory room. All of her belongings were scattered about.

"What...the...?" she muttered, stepping through the threshold. Nothing was out of the ordinary here. Even the broken moon shone brightly outside her window. She turned around to face Bedivere, who was still in the hallway, looking around in confusion. "Holy shit."

"I did not notice the transformation," he said, his mouth open.

"N-Neither did I. Okay, this is creepy."

"I agree. Should we continue to advance?"

"I think you were right about getting some rest."

"I'm glad you agree with me," he said as he stepped into her room, sliding the door shut behind them.

Yang let out a heavy sigh as she let herself fall backward on her bed. She put both hands to her face, rubbing her eyes before staring up at the ceiling.

"So, I'm guessing everybody's in their own castle again?" Yang said.

"That may be the case," Bedivere said, taking a seat on her desk chair.

"I don't get why you and I are separated from them, though. The last time this happened, we were all split up, right?"

He nodded.

"What did we do wrong? Weiss was able to get us out last time."

"I think we should rest for now. The clearer our heads, the better we can come up with a solution."

"You're right." She closed her eyes. The mattress beside her sank as Bedivere took a seat with her. "Hey, who gave you permission to get on my bed, huh?" she said with a smirk.

He chuckled. "It was you, of course."

She sat up. "Huh?"

"You do know I can feel what is in your heart, do you not?"

She flushed a little bit. "What are you talking about?"

He reached over, placing his hand on top of hers, his human hand touching her robotic one. She swallowed hard.

"What are you doing?" she said with a nervous giggle.

"Just admiring your hand."

"But, that's not even my real hand."

"It's as real as the rest of you, isn't it?"

Her eyes opened wide. "W-What are you—"

She had seen it coming, but did nothing to stop it. The next thing she knew, his mouth was covering hers, the warmth of his lips giving her warmth as well.

"Wh-What...?" she managed.

"Just rest yourself," he said, his hands exploring her entire body, undoing her top and her pants.

Her face was hot. "Bedivere, what's gotten into you?"

"I'm just giving you what you've always wanted."

"What I've...always wanted?"

He nodded, kissing her shoulder as he pulled her shirt up and over her head. She shyly covered herself up as he moved his kisses up to her neck.

"No, Bedivere, we shouldn't be doing this."

He responded by continuing to kiss her. She could feel his tongue on her neck. She threw her head back. It felt so good.

"Stop..."

He gently lowered her down to the bed as he bared himself before her as well. Her face was on fire now as he lined up his body with hers.

"We can't do this..."

He kissed her neck again sending lightning up and down her body.

"Oh," she gasped as his hand went to the inside of her thigh. "Please, no, we can't..."

"Yang, you are so beautiful," he whispered into her ear before kissing the side of her head and moving to her cheek and then to her lips.

"Bedivere," she said between his kisses. "We can't." He kissed her again. "We have to stop."

"I'll only stop if you truly wish for it."

She closed her eyes, ignoring the voices in her head and allowing him to take her.

—

"W-What?" Jaune said as he returned to himself.

"Hmm," Bedivere said. "Yang's desires are quite interesting."

"D-Desires?"

"Well, I suppose in her case it's a combination of a desire mixed with a fear, a fear that she would one day make a mistake and betray a very close friend."

"Weiss."

"You are indeed sharp, my squire."

"I'm not _your_ squire."

"Oh, there's no need to be so hostile."

"I still don't get it. Why the hell are you doing these things? Do you get a kick out of it or something?"

"There's no true rhyme or reason. I am what I am. Merely being in an area causes these things to happen."

"What? But you had control over the spread of that black light! You caused this! Willfully!"

"This time, yes, but it would have happened eventually anyway. Such is the consequence of being a Wraith."

"A _what_?"

"You don't need to know any more than that."

Jaune gripped Caliburn tightly, steeling himself for a battle he could sense was approaching.

"I see the time for talk is over," Bedivere's shadow said. "Are you ready to free your friends?"

"You're damn right. And I'm gonna put you back where you belong!"

"Oh, will you, now? Well, Jaune, may I remind you that this game has just gotten serious. We're playing for keeps!"


	32. Chapter XXXII

CHAPTER XXXII

 _Spiegel, Spiegel_

Weiss opened her eyes. She was lying in her own bed, in her own bedroom back in Atlas. She sat up and looked around. The sun was shining through her window. She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to figure out what was going on.

 _What was the last thing I did?_ she thought. She couldn't remember. Not yesterday, not the day before, not any day of the entire week.

There was a knock on her door.

"Sis?"

 _What?_

"Hey, are you awake yet? The meeting you scheduled for today is about to start."

 _Meeting?_

"Did you forget again? C'mon, open up."

She got out of bed to open her door. She passed by her mirror and took a look at herself. She was in her nightgown, her hair flowing freely. She opened the door to see Whitley.

"Oh, jeez," he said. "You aren't even dressed yet."

"Whitley?" she said.

"Yes, that is my name," he chuckled. "Did you forget that, too?"

"Wait, what's going on?"

He sighed. "You've been like this a lot lately. You must've taken quite a few blows to the head in all your time as a Huntress. Try and get dressed in five minutes. The board meeting is about to start."

"Board meeting?"

"Uh-huh. I'll be waiting for you in the conference room."

She watched as he left. _What in the world is going on?_ Either way, she had to dress up and get over there. She put on her best dress as always, tying her hair up into a bun and ponytail to the right of her head, putting on just the right amount of makeup. Not too overwhelming. Just perfect.

She headed over to the conference room, where the entire board was indeed awaiting her arrival. She looked around nervously. Whitley was standing right next to her designated chair at the very head of the table while her father sat to the right of that chair. There were a number of other well-dressed men and women, some of whom she recognized as high-ranking officials of the Schnee Dust Company.

"I trust your daughter has had a good night's rest," one of the businessmen said.

"Give her some time," Jacques said to him. "This is only her second month as the company's president, after all."

"Add to that the fact that she is a well-regarded Huntress," Whitley began, "and you can understand why she would need more sleep than the rest of us soft folk."

There were chuckles around the room.

"Well, then, shall we begin?"

Weiss sat through the entire meeting in a complete daze. Not many of the questions were directed at her. Well, maybe they were, but Whitley and her father were quick to answer when her response was no more than a blank stare. She did manage a few nods here and there, but for the most part she had no idea what was going on. After a little under an hour, the meeting adjourned and the other board members left to continue their own work.

"Seems like it was less of a board meeting and more of a _bored_ meeting, huh, sis?" Whitley said with a chuckle.

"What?" Weiss said, snapping out of her stupor.

"What, did you forget the Yanguage already?"

"Y-Yanguage?"

"Gosh, you really are out of it. Did you spend all night training with your boyfriend again?"

She reddened. "B-Boyfriend?"

"Whitley, stop teasing your sister," Jacques said. "You know she's a busy woman."

"I know," he sighed. "She's just so easy to tease. And why the heck is she president of the company when I'm the one doing most of the work?"

"P-President?" Weiss said.

"Uh, yeah? You know, since you took over a little more than a month ago?"

"Whitley, give it a rest," Jacques said, putting on his jacket and picking up a briefcase. "I'm going to personally take our proposal to our business partners over in Vale. You'll both be fine here on your own, won't you?"

"Of course, father. I'll make sure Weiss gets all the perks of being company president _and_ Winter's hunting partner."

"Now, now. You need to start taking your training seriously as well."

He sighed. "Do I really? I mean, yeah, her boyfriend's real fun to hang out with, but gosh he can be a pain."

"Good. It's about time you had some discipline instilled into you."

"I already am well-behaved, thank you!"

"Then, it shouldn't be a problem!"

Whitley sighed as their father left the room. He turned to Weiss, who was still in utter bewilderment. He let out another sigh. "Okay, I know what you need. You haven't seen him since last night, right? I'm guessing that's why you're so out of it."

"W-What?" she stammered.

"Oh, let's just go already!"

She followed him out of the conference room into the grand halls of their mansion. She passed by Klein along the way.

"Ah, good morning, Miss Schnee!" he greeted as jovially as ever. "How was the meeting?"

"She's still out of it," Whitley said. "I'll make sure she gets through the day just fine, though."

"You know what will do the trick, don't you, Master Whitley?"

He nodded with a smirk. "The instant she sees him, she'll be a whole new person again."

They shared a laugh.

"That's him for you!" Klein said. "Miss Schnee, I will have lunch ready for you and Master Whitley exactly at noon. Will you be having lunch in your room today, or in the dining hall?"

"She'll be eating lunch with me," Whitley said. "I don't want her to get lost in her own house."

They shared another laugh before going their separate ways.

"All right, sis, here we are," Whitley said, opening the door to the manor's training center, where other Huntsmen and Huntresses were running through regular morning exercises. "Sis is out in the back, as usual."

She followed him around the perimeter of the training hall to the balcony where she and Winter regularly practiced. Out here, they couldn't destroy the building with all the Dust explosions and whatnot. Winter was engaged in a training duel with another warrior, one armed with a longsword. Both wore protective helmets, obscuring their faces.

"Hah!" Winter exclaimed, holding her sword at her training partner's throat. She took her helmet off with her free hand. "I win this round!"

"I will take the next," the other warrior said. "I assure you, Lady Winter."

 _That voice._

"Oh, Weiss, there you are," Winter said, walking to her sister. "I trust the board meeting went well?"

"As well as it could have gone," Whitley said with a chuckle.

The eldest sighed. "What, you didn't get enough sleep again?"

"I blame him," Whitley said, pointing at the helmeted man, who was in the process of removing his headgear.

Weiss stared as he finally revealed his face to her. She gasped, watching his brown hair fall back down to his ears. Her pale blue eyes caught his hazels.

"My lady," he said to her with a bow.

Winter and Whitley both looked at Weiss, who was staring with her mouth open. Winter reached over with her hand to push her chin up. Weiss shook her head, snapping out of her trance.

"She's gonna have to fight on an empty stomach, by the way," Whitley said.

"You missed breakfast again?" Winter asked her.

"The board meeting was literally about to begin when I knocked on her door to wake her up."

"Goodness. Well, I suppose a warrior should be able to find victory even without proper victuals. Sir Bedivere, if you will."

"Of course," he replied.

"And naturally, she forgets Myrtenaster completely," Whitley said with a sigh.

"Thank goodness for Klein," Winter said, looking over to the door, where their butler was headed their way with Weiss's weapon and a case of Dust cartridges.

"I noticed you walking in the halls without this," he said, handing both pieces of equipment to Weiss. "Good luck on your training with him, madam."

She gave him a smile as she accepted her weapon, examining it for a bit. Whitley gestured for him to stay before he could leave.

"She could use the support right now, I think," he said.

"Very well, then, Master Whitley," Klein said as he stood off to the side with Winter and Whitley.

"Are you ready?" Bedivere asked.

Weiss gave a single nod, squaring off with him in the middle of the large balcony. His sword was still in its sheath, but she knew he could draw it with lightning speed. He smirked and she gasped as he vanished. She turned to the left to block his strike, which came from up above. She dodged, projecting a glyph to accelerate herself as she delivered a strike at him, which only barely missed.

He conjured up the magical power of his Nexus, launching a number of projectiles at her. She countered with the same elemental properties, canceling out his attack with her Dust. He dashed at her with a grin, engaging her in a sword duel. Myrtenaster had much less mass than his longsword, but her technique enabled her to deflect, parry, and counter all of his attacks.

"You're getting stronger," he said as she engaged in a sword deadlock.

"You sure you're not just holding back?" she said with her own grin.

"I wouldn't dare do that to you!"

He swung his sword at her legs and she leaped up to dodge, projecting a glyph behind and sending her rocketing at him. He saw the move coming and moved to block her strike, but she somehow managed to get around his sword and he had to deflect her weapon using his hand. He reached all the way up to her rapier's hand guard and it quickly devolved into a grappling match, with her own hand on the cross guard of his weapon.

Weiss yelped as he wrestled her down to the ground, but she wasn't going to be outdone so easily. His footwork was otherwise solid, but she spotted one tiny weakness and went for it, taking out his balance with one move. He fell to the ground with her and they rolled around several times before they stopped with him on top of her. She laughed at the end of it all. He laughed with her, staring into her eyes for a moment. She reached up and poked him on the nose and he smiled.

"Yeah, okay," Whitley said. "This is supposed to be training, not, not...what are you guys doing anyway?"

"Ah, Master Jacques," Klein said as he turned to the door. "Shall I help you with your luggage?"

"Please, Klein, if you would be so kind."

"Father, what are you doing out here?" Winter said.

"I wanted to see all of you off before I left for Vale."

"Another business venture?"

"If luck is on our side."

"I'm sure you'll succeed."

"Well, that's not even a question, is it?"

They all turned to Bedivere and Weiss, who were dusting themselves off as they stood up and retrieved their weapons.

"Sir Bedivere," Jacques said as the knight approached him.

"Jacques," Bedivere said as they shared a firm handshake. "I bid you good fortune on your endeavor."

"It's good to know my daughter is in good hands. Thank you. For everything."

"Everything I have done, I have done for her."

Jacques looked over at Winter. "How come you haven't found a gentleman like this one, hmm?"

She rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest. "Don't you have a plane to catch?"

Whitley chuckled.

"What's so funny, huh?"

"Muffin, muffin," he said.

"I'll throw a muffin at your head, see if you like that."

"Good luck, father," Weiss said.

He smiled, giving her a hug before leaving the balcony with Klein.

"Well, I'm going to report to Ironwood," Winter said. "I'll see you all at lunch?"

"At the dining hall," Whitley said as she left the group. "And I need to go take care of the reports from yesterday. Sis, will you be all right signing off on all the new Dust mining procedures?"

"Procedures?" Weiss said.

"Yeah, you know, all the changes you wanted to enact in our policies, the new safety protocols, new safety equipment, all that stuff. It's gonna dig into our profits, but hey, your company, your vision."

"Oh. Yeah, I'll get on that right away."

"As soon as you two are done wrestling on the ground, huh?" Whitley said as he walked away.

Weiss watched as her little brother left the balcony. It was just her and Bedivere now. All of this was still unbelievable.

"Believe it, Weiss," he said, placing his hands on her shoulders from behind. "This is the life you longed for, isn't it? You've saved the world from the darkness and now you also lead the world's largest Dust company, which is also now the most ethical company in all of Remnant. You've restored honor to the Schnee name and cemented your place in history."

She turned around, looking up into his face.

"Is something the matter?"

She leaned forward, pressing herself into his chest. He let out a chuckle before wrapping his arms around her. They stood like this for some time until the snow started to fall again.

"Should we get inside?" he asked her.

"No," she said quietly. "Let's stay out here for a little longer, just you and me."

"As you wish, my lady."

Years had gone by since their victory over Salem. World peace had been attained. Schnee was now a household name, the logo emblazoned on a majority of products, not just Dust anymore. Weiss walked into their manor's backyard. She leaned against the railing, looking outward in the middle of the field of grass, where Bedivere played with their children.

"No, no!" he said, running away from all four of their boys and girls. "You're supposed to chase after the ball, not me!"

Weiss giggled to herself as their children tackled him to the ground and he grabbed the youngest, tickling her before giving her a kiss on the nose. He glanced up at her. The wind caught her long, free-flowing hair, which she had stopped wearing in a ponytail when they had their first child, their eldest son.

"Look!" Bedivere said to their children as he pointed toward her. "Who is that?"

"Mama!" the third shouted.

"Go give mama a kiss!"

Each one called out to her as they ran to her. She descended the stone steps to the grass, smiling as all four of their children surrounded her. She knelt down, giving each of them a hug and a kiss. She couldn't stop the smile from forming, nor the tear from falling.

"All right," she said. "Dinner's ready inside."

The quartet ran up the stairs, noisy as ever. Their youngest tripped at the very top, but before Weiss could even run to her, she was already right back up to catch up to her siblings.

"She has your tenacity," Bedivere said as he wrapped his arms around her from behind.

She took his hands in hers, lacing her fingers with his. She leaned her head to the side as he kissed her on the neck. _Is this real?_ She could scarcely remember their fight against Salem anymore. It was as though it had never happened. As Bedivere moved his kisses to her shoulder, she could not push the doubt out of her mind.

"Bedivere," she said quietly, sensing something terribly wrong with everything around her.

"Yes, Weiss?" he said, kissing the side of her chin.

"Where are we?"

He backed away from her and she turned to face him.

"What have we been doing?"

"What do you mean?"

"These last...ten years, or however long it's been. It's all been a haze. I hardly remember any of it, or any of our battles with Ruby and the others."

"I have to admit myself, it has been quite the busy decade."

She shook her head. "No, it's more than that. It's like...a part of me is trying to remember things, but I can't remember them. This, all of this, us, it's all too perfect."

He walked over to her, taking her hands in his and giving her fingers a kiss. "You deserve perfect. After everything you've been through, this is what you deserve."

She smiled. "Still. I can't..."

No, there really was something wrong with all of this. The battle wasn't over yet. Not by a long shot. There was a flicker of something in the distance. A shadow? No, something else.

"Weiss?" his voice echoed.

"Huh?" she said, turning back to him.

His mouth moved, but she couldn't hear his voice. There were other voices surfacing in her mind. Voices she hadn't heard in forever. Was that Ruby's voice? Or maybe Yang's? No, perhaps it was Blake. Or Jaune. Or Ren, Nora, Penny. How could she have forgotten them?

"Have you figured it out yet?"

She looked at Bedivere.

"Weiss, you need to wake up."

"Wake up? What do you mean?"

"They still need you. You're the only one who can free them from the darkness. It's your light they need now."

Her heart became heavy with an immense weight and she started to fall, but Bedivere's strong hands were there to support her. She looked up at him. He was beginning to fade away.

"What's happening?" she said, looking around. It wasn't just him disappearing. The whole world around her was breaking apart.

"Look for me, Weiss," Bedivere said, his voice far away. "Because even as we speak, I am lost. I need you to find me once more..."

—

Weiss awoke in the middle of an impenetrable blackness. This place, wherever it was, was completely featureless. But there were sounds out there somewhere. In the distance, she spotted two men fighting with swords. One of the swords was black as night while the other shone with the brilliance of the sun. She shook her head, trying to get her mind back into reality.

 _Was all that just now nothing more than a dream?_

She stood up, walking over to the two warriors. It was Jaune and Bedivere. But something was off about the latter. His aura was pitch black.

 _Right,_ she thought, finally remember what happened. _He went through that...transformation or something, and now..._

She looked around. What was happening? The entire world was gone, supplanted by this everlasting darkness. But she could sense people out there. She could hear Ruby's voice, Yang's voice, Blake's voice, all of their voices.

 _Is this another castle?_ she thought as she looked around. There were no structures, though, no castles at all. And yet, something was out there. She closed her eyes, concentrating on her friends. They were definitely out there, but she couldn't get to them. She could see them now, walking in their shoes, experiencing the utter dread and terror in some, the guilt and despair in others.

Her heart became heavy with all of these burdens, but she couldn't give up, not now, not when they needed her. The clanging of swords registered in her head again and she turned to where the darkened version of Bedivere and Jaune continued to duel. What could she do, though?

 _Right,_ she thought as she remembered the connection she shared with Bedivere. But did she really want to connect with this version of him? Just thinking about it terrified her to a primal level, but she couldn't just stand here doing nothing.

 _Weiss,_ a voice whispered to her.

"Who is that?" she responded to it.

 _You must give your strength to the young squire. Only he can defeat the Wraith now._

"Wraith?"

 _I am Caliburn. My light has the power to erase this darkness. But being this close to the shadow drains my strength. Even now, only Jaune's light keeps my own from being extinguished entirely. You must lend him your own light._

"How do I do that?"

There was no response from the sword. She was on her own. She steeled herself as she closed her eyes, concentrating on Jaune. She had no idea if this was going to work, but she went ahead and did it anyway. She willed her aura to project into his own and he felt a sudden surge of power.

"Whoa," Jaune said.

"What?" Bedivere's shadow said. "How is this possible?" He turned to where Weiss stood. "She has broken free?"

Jaune looked at the sword in his hand, listening to its voice. "So, that's it, huh?"

Bedivere turned to him. "Oh, no you don't!"

Jaune held Caliburn up high in the air and it shone even brighter than before, seeming to catch fire, a flame that burned white-hot, emitting a golden shine along with it. The light seemed to repel the very shadow that erupted from Bedivere's body. He began to growl and roar as his true form began to show on the surface, an indescribable, formless thing that drove mad any human that attempted to gaze upon it.

But Jaune was protected by Caliburn's light. It would not allow him to lose his sanity to this abomination.

"Away with you!" Jaune said as the sword's power grew. " _Sacred Flame_!"

Caliburn's golden fire exploded out omni-directionally, blasting away at the darkness which consumed Mistral and the surrounding landscape. The shadow around Bedivere was no exception, flaking away like dead skin as the blinding light undid all of the blackness and freed everyone trapped within.

The Wraith let out a piercing shriek as it exploded, leaving Bedivere's body unharmed. He fell face-flat to the earth, completely unconscious. Weiss and Jaune looked around. The world had been returned to normal. The sun was just getting past its noon position in the sky. It was a confusing sight. Everything was as dark as night only seconds ago.

"Weiss!" Jaune said, running to her. "Are you okay?"

She nodded, looking over at Bedivere. They both ran over to him. Weiss tentatively reached out to him. Just before the Wraith had disappeared, she had caught a glimpse of its true form, a sight that she could not even begin to describe.

"I think he's okay," Jaune said, putting two fingers to his neck. "He's still breathing. I'll carry him back to the city. C'mon, we gotta find the others!"


	33. Chapter XXXIII

CHAPTER XXXIII

 _Überwinden_

Bedivere opened his eyes to overly bright sunlight shining through his bedroom window. He looked around. He was alone in here. Good. He couldn't bear to look any of his friends in the eye right now. He swung his legs over the side of his bed to get up, but he couldn't find the strength to. He put his hands to his face, beginning to sob.

There were footsteps approaching his room. He quickly jumped out of bed and slid his door shut, locking it. He leaned forward against the sliding door for a moment before turning around and leaning back into it. He let himself slide down to the carpet, leaving one leg extended while his other was folded in. He leaned his head back against the door, letting the tears fall silently.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the door, Weiss sat with her back against his, the thin wood the only thing separating the two. She closed her eyes, trying to use his Connection Semblance to call out to him. Either it wasn't working or he was ignoring her.

 _Why do you have to push me away like this?_

 _Because I can't bear to see you hurt,_ he thought to himself, a thought that would never reach her.

Weiss spent several minutes sitting against his door. He still hadn't moved either. She wanted so badly to see him right now. He'd been asleep for the past two days. He hadn't been injured, not physically, anyway, but she could sense the brokenness deep within him. Now that he was awake, she wanted to be able to give him some measure of comfort, but it seemed it would be impossible.

"Bedivere," she whispered. "Don't shut me out. Not now."

He didn't reply to her. She let a single tear fall down, sitting in place. And even though he refused to open the door for her, he didn't move from his spot either.

—

Meanwhile, everyone else fought to recover from that nightmarish experience they all individually had. That alone was more draining than the battle against the White Fang and the Grimm invasion. Qrow had just returned from his excursion as well. As he had predicted, his attempt at diplomacy had failed to bring the Spring Maiden here to Mistral. Neither the Maiden nor Raven were having any of it and he left empty-handed.

However, things on the grander scale started to turn around. The White Fang had continued their assault, even after their leaders had disappeared and the incident with the darkness had subsided. With the city completely devastated by the incident, the White Fang would have rampaged all the way to the Academy gates had it not been for the arrival of a faction of the White Fang loyal to the Belladonnas and dedicated to bridging the gap between Faunus and humans. Her mother and father personally led the crusade and ended up capturing all but a handful of the White Fang attackers.

In addition to the Belladonna White Fang faction, Winter Schnee had arrived with several Atlas military personnel under her direct command. She had disregarded Ironwood's border closure and orders to remain within Atlas borders, heading out with a small detachment of loyal subordinates to save Mistral from destruction. It was her forces that now incarcerated the captured White Fang invaders, but the Belladonna faction made sure to accompany the Atlas guards to ensure fair treatment.

"What's with all the gloom and doom?" Qrow said as he walked into the dorm's living room, where everyone else was sprawled about in no particular fashion. Entering after him were Winter Schnee and Blake's parents. Blake's face instantly lit up upon seeing them and she sprang up from the floor, darting to them to give both of them the tightest hugs she could muster.

"Whoa, there," her father, Ghira, said as she wrapped her arms around him tightly. "What's with the tears?"

"No reason," she sobbed. "It's just good to see you. That's all."

"You've been busy," said her mother, Kali.

Blake nodded. "Fighting Grimm is one thing, but fighting against your fellow Faunus is a whole different thing altogether."

"But it seems you managed to kill not a single one," her father said.

"I have Bedivere to thank for that. He was incredibly effective at knocking out auras without killing anybody."

"Yes, I've heard about this miraculous knight. Is he here?"

"Well, he's been unconscious since the battle."

"Unconscious?" her mother asked. "Is he okay?"

"There was an incident...and, well, he's been out ever since."

"An incident?" Qrow asked.

"He saved us from it," Jaune said, standing up to join them. "It was a new weapon Salem's people deployed against Mistral and he managed to stop it before it did any real damage."

"So it _was_ them," Winter said. "We picked up incredibly bizarre readings as we approached, but things were right back to normal the moment we were within visual range. One of our scouts did report a strange phenomenon over the city and surrounding area, though. He said it was all covered in nighttime, even though it was the middle of the day."

"There's also the fact," Ghira began, "that the entirety of the city's inhabitants, along with most of the White Fang invaders, were under some kind of psychological condition when we arrived. And then there were those other...things."

"You saw them, too?" Blake said.

"Yes. I've never seen such a thing before."

They were referring to the few instances of people, both human and Faunus, having been, for lack of a better term, mutated into something that partially resembled their old selves, humanoid creatures that appeared to be tormented, both physically and psychologically. They had attacked everything that moved and had to be put down as soon as they started biting and clawing at their surroundings. Overall, there were roughly a hundred such instances.

"They behaved like Grimm," Blake's mother said, "but there was something eerily human about them."

"Yeah, we still don't know what that was all about either," Blake lied.

Of course they all knew. It was Bedivere that had caused all of that. Or at least some aspect of him that he had no control over.

"Where is my sister?" Winter asked.

"She was here just a while ago," Jaune said. "She might've gone to check up on Bedivere."

"Which way is his room?"

"I'll take you there."

They headed down the hallways to the far end, where Bedivere's room was located. Weiss was still seated against his door when Winter and Jaune came near.

"Weiss?" Winter said.

Weiss couldn't believe her ears. She looked up slowly, spotting her big sister in all her Atlas military splendor. Her eyes opened wide and she leaped up to her feet, leaving behind a trail of tears as she ran and threw herself over her sister.

"Weiss, what's gotten into you?" Winter said before patting her head.

"It's so good to see you, sis," Weiss sobbed.

Winter looked over at Jaune.

"We've been through a lot," he said. "Particularly her. I'll, uh, I'll be back in the living room with the others."

"Weiss," Winter said, holding the younger one at arm's length. "Why don't we talk about this somewhere private?"

Weiss wiped a tear away, giving her a nod.

—

"Looks like I missed out on some fun," Qrow said as Jaune finished recapping the events of the last few days. He had left out everything about Bedivere's transformation and the hellish nightmares that resulted from it. Qrow and the Belladonnas were left to assume that the "new weapon" deployed by Salem's henchmen had something to do with mass hallucinatory effects.

"And you kids were able to fight through it," Ghira said.

"We couldn't have done it without Jaune, too," Ruby said.

"Yeah," Nora said. "He was the first to break out of the illusions. Him and Penny."

"Wait a minute," Kali said. "We all saw you on TV."

"Yes," Penny said. "I suffered catastrophic damage during the tournament, but I have been fully repaired thanks to Liam!"

Ghira and Kali turned to Hillphire, who smiled at them as he waved.

"Boy, you really have been busy," Ghira said. "Anyway, how are all of you doing?"

"Reporting for duty, sir," Hollie said, standing up.

"Hollie, it seems you and Blake have been through a lot together. Congratulations on a job well done with the recruitment efforts. We wouldn't have been able to put together such a coalition without your combined efforts."

"It was mostly her. Blake's got a passion for this kind of stuff."

"Either way," Qrow said, watching as Yang got up and left the room, "you kids did good."

"It was mostly luck," Oscar said.

—

Yang walked up to Bedivere's door and knocked on it. There was no answer. She knocked again.

"Hey," she said, giving it a third knock. "I know you're in there."

Still no answer.

"If you don't open this door, I'm gonna knock it down."

"I'll just put a barrier over it," he said from within.

"Then, I'll bust a hole in the wall and go in from there."

He slid the door open, standing face to face with her in the doorway. She looked up at him momentarily before stepping in, closing the door behind her. Bedivere watched as she walked past him all the way to his window, looking out at the landscape, which was scarred and still smoking from the battle two days ago.

"What do you want?" he asked her sternly.

"For you to quit locking yourself away like this," she said.

"What do you want me to say, Yang? That I lost control over the one thing that I have fought all my life to seal away?"

"No, I don't expect you to say anything like that. What the hell was that thing anyway? He said he was a part of you. What did he mean by that?"

Bedivere sighed heavily as he leaned against the wall. "Exactly what he said. He is me, the me that I keep repressed beneath my knighthood."

"Why has he surfaced now of all times?"

He shrugged.

She turned to face him. She was going to say something else when she decided to leave the room. She was reaching out for the door when he spoke.

"I was there, too, you know," he said quietly.

Her heart skipped a beat and she slowly turned her head to him. His hazel eyes were gazing deeply into her lavenders.

"I wasn't...merely watching. He forced me...to participate."

Her heart skipped another beat and she held her breath for a while. Her face began to redden and she left the room in a hurry, stopping in the middle of the hallway several paces away from his door. She closed her eyes, putting both hands to her face before continuing to the kitchen. Qrow was already there, refilling his flask with the stock of liquor he and Bedivere had procured.

"I was wondering where you went," he said, screwing the cap on his flask. He watched wide-eyed as she walked up to the counter, grabbing the bottle and guzzling a good amount of it before slamming it back on the counter. "Okay, what's the problem?"

"Nothing's the problem," she said sharply.

He chuckled. "You drink a quarter of the bottle and give me an answer like that and expect me to believe nothing's the problem?"

"Uncle Qrow, just, please, leave me alone, okay?"

He didn't reply, watching her for a bit. She had her hand on her hip, the other leaning against the counter. He pulled two glasses from the cabinet and poured the bottle into both, picking up one and walking to the table with the bottle in the other hand. Yang looked at the glass on the counter and picked it up as well, taking a seat at the table with Qrow.

They sat silently at the table for a while. Qrow had refilled her glass three times before she let out a heavy sigh, leaning her head on her mechanical fist. She looked at her uncle, who was reclining in his chair awkwardly, which he balanced on the two back legs, his feet kicked up on the table.

"How are you doing that?" she asked.

He quickly turned his head to her, pointing at himself with his thumb. That was all it took for his equilibrium to fall apart, sending him and the chair crashing to the floor. Yang snickered and burst out into laughter.

"You think that's funny, huh?" Qrow drawled, picking up his chair and resituating himself.

"Too bad Ruby missed it," Yang said.

"Yeah, you think you're real funny, doncha?" He took a swig from his glass.

"Uncle Qrow?"

"What's up, kiddo?"

"I've always wondered. Did you and Ruby's mom ever have a thing going on?"

"Whaddya mean?"

"Like, you know, an extra thing on the side?"

He hesitated to answer. "We were all really good friends, all right?"

She shifted in her chair. "That's not really an answer."

"Look, the past is the past, and I'd rather not talk about it if that's okay with you."

She nodded, looking down at her glass.

"This has something to do with that knight, doesn't it?"

She flinched.

"Okay. Well, if you wanna talk about, I'm sitting right in front of you. If not, that's fine."

She played with her glass, swishing the amber liquid around for some time before a little bit spilled out. "So, it's entirely possible that Ruby and I aren't sisters, but cousins."

Qrow froze mid-drink. He downed his glass before looking at Yang. "Ruby is your sister. End of story."

She gave him a single nod.

"So," Qrow began, pouring himself another glass. "What the hell was that black thing that swallowed the city?"

"We're still trying to figure that out ourselves," she said. "But, as far as we know, it's a real thing. It doesn't just place illusions in your head. It takes what's in your head and creates twisted versions of reality according to what's in your heart."

"Hang on a sec, what?"

"That's what Penny and Hillphire say about their analysis of all the data. It's some kind of...space-time anomaly? I think that's what they called it. Anyway, yeah, it pulls you in, downloads your mind, and spits out custom-tailored realities for everybody caught in it."

"What was yours?"

"I'd rather not talk about it."

"Was it that knight?"

"I'd rather not talk about it!"

He didn't press any further, instead pouring the last of the bottle into her glass. "You could probably use that a lot more than me."

—

While Blake spent some alone time with her parents and Weiss caught up with her sister, the rest of the crew continued to sulk around the living room. The word "drained" could not even begin to describe what they were all feeling. Up until now, no one had talked about what they saw in that other reality. They all somehow knew that they went through something, but each one was a private affair. Hollie was the first to break the silence about their experiences.

"I...I killed everyone," she mumbled.

Some heads turned to her.

"I lost control over my Semblance again...except this time it drove everyone to despair and suicide." She put her hands over her face. "I just...I can't bear it if I did the same to you guys."

"Blake's was pretty similar," Sun said. "Every one of us died, too. She blamed herself for not being able to do anything about the White Fang and her past mistakes. As for me, I had the pleasure of sticking by her side for all eternity, as a ghost, unable to do anything for her. Her despair became my despair."

Ren looked over to Nora, who was leaning her head on his shoulder. He took her hand in his and she squeezed.

"For me it was the constant thought of losing Nora," he said. "We were right back in our own past, completely helpless. I couldn't do anything for her."

"And I couldn't do anything for you," Nora said to him. "I think that's what hurt the most."

He nodded, leaning his head on hers.

Penny looked around the room. She was the only one aside from Jaune completely unaffected by that phenomenon. Was it because she wasn't real? Because she was nothing more than a machine? Perhaps that was her own version of the phenomenon, the realization that she couldn't share in all of this because she wasn't like them. She looked at her hands. Just beneath that artificial skin lay her artificial body, composed of metal and plastic, not flesh.

Ruby inched closer to her until they were touching. "You're just as real as all of us," she mumbled. "Don't let any of that bother you."

"But," Penny began, "I didn't have my own experience in the singularity."

"That only means you were stronger than the rest of us," Hillphire said.

She turned to him.

"I don't know if it's inherent to you or if something in my redesign made it possible. There are things science still cannot explain. The fact that you contain a soul tells me that you should have been affected by the singularity just as the rest of us did."

"Maybe it's because you've already gone through something similar already," Ruby said. "I mean, you said it yourself. You were stuck in your own body after you 'died', completely conscious of everything, right?"

She nodded.

"That's how you resisted it," Hillphire said. "You've already overcome your own trauma and there was nothing else to bring you down."

"But that singularity created pocket realities based on our hearts," Penny said. "I didn't have such a thing."

"Didn't you?" Jaune said. "I mean, literally your doubts right now are probably part of that thing's way of messing with our heads."

"Jaune's right," Ruby said. "And that tells me you're as real as anybody else."

Penny looked at her hands again. It was these hands that somehow broke through one of those walls of separation between each individual singularity, allowing her to enter Hillphire's reality and rescue him from it.

"Liam?" she said.

"Yes, Penny?" Hillphire replied.

"Did you program me to feel confusion?"

He shook his head. "Many of your emotional subroutines already existed before I even got around to repairing you."

"I see."

"Confusion means you're as human as the rest of us," Hollie said. "Cuz you better believe I'm confused as all hell."

Oscar looked down at the cane that rested beside his leg. _Ozpin, would you ever take over my body like that?_

 _Never, Oscar,_ Ozpin replied. _Eventually, our souls will become one and we will become indistinguishable. That will happen over time. I will never force it._

 _I see. It's just..._

 _Yes, I know what you are talking about. Honestly, when your voice disappeared, I feared the worst. But at least we've ascertained that the phenomenon was to blame._

Yang stumbled into the living room, heading straight to Ruby. She sat next to her for a little bit before throwing her arms around her.

"Yang?" Ruby said. "Are you drunk?"

"You'll always be my sister," Yang drawled, snuggling her. "Nothing will ever change that."

Ruby looked at her for a bit before leaning her head against hers, holding on to her arms. "Yeah, you're drunk."

"I'm _not_!"

There were a few chuckles around the room.

"Your uncle's a terrible influence," Ren said.

"He sure can be!" Ruby said.

"So, what did you see?" Ren asked Yang, who flinched at the question.

"Same as before," she lied. She couldn't very well tell the whole group that her "nightmare" was her and Bedivere going at it until she was sore. "Except this time I was able to stop it from happening." She bit her lower lip.

"It's okay, Yang," Ruby said, returning her sister's hug. "I'm not going anywhere."

Yang managed a smile through all the guilt.

—

"So, yeah, that's what we've been doing since we last saw each other," Weiss said as she finished relaying everything to her sister.

Winter stood up from the stone table, walking to the edge of the garden to look out over the broken city.

"We all did our best to keep the civilian casualties to a minimum," Weiss said, standing up to join her sister, "but the attack was much more severe than we'd anticipated and—"

Weiss found herself in her sister's arms. Winter held on to her tightly for nearly a whole minute before finally letting go, holding her by the shoulders at arm's length.

"I'm glad you're safe," Winter said.

Weiss smiled, giving her a nod.

"Now," Winter began, keeping a hand on her shoulder as she led her toward the center of the garden. "Talk to me about this knight of yours."

"Oh, you mean Bedivere?"

"So, he has a name, does he?"

She reddened. "Yes, he does."

"And from what I have gathered, this is _not_ the same suit of armor possessed by a Grimm that you fought so long ago, correct?"

Weiss nodded. "I had already gotten better at summoning the suit of armor when I found myself surrounded by Grimm on the way here. The summon wouldn't work and just as I thought I was done for, he showed up and saved me."

"And he's been with you ever since."

She nodded.

"Hmm. I've never heard of something like that happening. Ever. But then again, I guess it's not too much of a stretch. After all, it was, quite literally, your summoning that brought him here. It's not too far-fetched to think that something interfered with your power and instead of summoning your fallen enemy, it brought something else altogether from an entirely different world. Although, I find it extremely interesting that his, uh, 'magic', for lack of a better term, would be so similar to our glyph Semblance. Poetic, even."

"Honestly, I still have no idea how he works half the time."

"You said it yourself, he _is_ from a different world. Is he handsome?"

Weiss turned red. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Well, I just want to know that the man who has been following my younger sister around is worthy of her."

"Really? Is that really the reason?"

"I can't deny my own personal curiosity."

Weiss sighed. "Well, it's gonna have to wait anyway."

"Why's that?"

"He's..." How would she word it exactly? Self-isolation? Self-loathing? "He won't leave his room."

Winter raised an eyebrow. "Is there something wrong with him?"

Weiss's demeanor changed completely into one of extreme discomfort. This fact wasn't lost on her big sister, of course.

"Talk to me, Weiss."

She sighed. "It's just...I don't know. Can I confide in you?"

"Of course," Winter said as she led the way back to the stone table, taking a seat with her on the same bench. "What's wrong?"

"Okay, that thing you guys saw, the, uh, singularity, or whatever Penny and Hillphire call it, it came from...well, it came from him."

She tilted her head in thought. "As in, he caused it?"

"Well, it wasn't _him_ him, but something that came out of him."

"What do you mean, exactly?"

"I don't know how to explain it. It wasn't the usual magic thing he does with his arm. It was like, like he changed into a completely different person. And then the shadow started spreading everywhere and next thing we knew we were all inside of it."

"Inside of the singularity?"

Weiss nodded.

"But Jaune was saying that—"

"Bedivere didn't stop the event. Jaune and I did. Jaune used that sword, Caliburn, to dispel the shadow. And then Bedivere himself was back. He's been unconscious since then, but he woke up just before you guys got here, and that's why you saw me in the hallway leaning against his door because he wouldn't let me in."

Winter noticed how upset the topic was making her sister. It was clear to her that Weiss cared about him very much and that even though he was a now a very real threat to all of them, she would never leave his side.

"I know how dangerous he is now," Weiss said, "especially after all that. But...I just can't..." She wiped tears she hadn't realized were forming. "Sorry."

"No, Weiss, don't be sorry for crying. It's obvious you care about him very much. And it's clear to me that he, too, cares for you. At the very least, he wouldn't let anything happen to you. That's probably why he won't leave his room."

"Yeah, I figured that much, but he's so freakin' dumb. He tells me to lean on him and to 'cast your burdens upon me' whenever I'm feeling down, but when it comes time for him to need someone to lean on, he won't let me in!"

Winter reached over and wrapped an arm around Weiss, pulling her head close to her so she could cry on her shoulder. "Just give him some time. You know how men are, always insisting on getting through their problems on their own. They don't wanna look weak, having to accept other people's help."

"It's just so stupid."

"Listen. Why don't we go get some ice cream?"

"Ice cream?"

"Yeah. Just you and me."

"But, I mean, most of the shops were destroyed."

"We're bound to find at least one place that hasn't been wrecked. It's been two days since the attack, so things should be at least on the way back up."

"Okay, then."

"C'mon. My treat."


	34. Chapter XXXIV

CHAPTER XXXIV

 _The Safest Place Becomes Alone_

Jaune walked out into Haven Academy's courtyard, taking in the warm sunlight from above. It had been five days since the battle for Mistral and mostly everyone had recovered from their ordeals. Still, nobody had the wherewithal to stomach any lunch today, at least, not anything heavier than the soup Hollie and Nora were preparing right now. He drew Caliburn, admiring the beautiful metalwork. He held it up in front of him at an angle. The sunlight hit it just right and it blinded him. He blinked a few times, shaking his head as tears formed in his eyes.

"Crap," he said, rubbing his face with his free arm.

"So," Ren said, joining him. "Is that your sword now?"

"No, I'm just hanging on to it for safekeeping until the rightful owner is ready to take it back."

"You mean he refused it?"

He nodded. "I've been going to his room, trying to give it to him, but he keeps saying to keep it away from him. Something about darkening its light if he were to hold it. I don't really know."

"He must be referring to that incident."

"Yeah. He's really shaken up about it. Won't leave his room."

"Well, I have seen Yang go there a number of times."

"I noticed that, too. Do you think they have a thing going on together?"

"Who's to say? I mean they were on the road together, him, her, and Weiss. Plus, they do seem to have somewhat of a connection. I mean there's the fact that they both have non-original right hands."

"She's also hot."

"And he's good-looking."

They both paused for a moment.

"Please don't tell Ruby I called her sister hot," Jaune said.

"As long as you don't tell Nora that I called another man good-looking," Ren said.

"Deal."

"So, tell me something. You didn't go through what we did."

Jaune looked at Caliburn. "I think I have this to thank." He paused. "No, I have Pyrrha to thank."

"Pyrrha?"

He nodded. "Before I went over to fight Bedivere's shadow thingy, this sword called out to me."

"That's why you left the battle."

"Yeah. Before I could pick up the sword, though, it tested me, making me fight a black knight in order to prove my worth or something like that. I was getting my butt kicked when Pyrrha showed up."

Ren stood in thought. "As in, _Pyrrha_ Pyrrha? Not an illusion?"

"Who's to say? All I know is that her touch was real. Her voice was real. Everything about her was real. Honestly, I can't tell you with absolute certainty that it really was her. After everything we've seen, she could've easily been all in my mind or some physical manifestation of something out there we still can't understand. But then, if all that's possible, it's just as likely that she really was the real thing, that maybe Caliburn or something else gave her life back, even for a few minutes. And I choose to believe that it was her. Because no matter what anyone else says, there's no mistaking that it was her soul that I felt when she was standing before me like that."

"Anything's possible, really. And to be honest, I'm not surprised that she'd be the one to save you again. She's saved all of us so many times."

"I really am helpless without her, huh?"

"No, I don't believe that. You're the one who fought against the shadow and defeated it. Sure, Weiss did pass some of her light into you at the very end, but it was you who wielded Caliburn against the darkness. You're the one who saved us all, Jaune."

He smiled. "Thanks, Ren. That really means a lot."

"Hey, let's get back inside. Lunch is probably already done."

"I'm worried, though. Nora's helping Hollie. Is there even gonna be enough soup left for all of us?"

"I won't tell her you said that."

They shared a chuckle before walking back inside together.

—

"This is pretty good," Blake said as everyone had some of the soup together, which was really more of a chunky stew than purely soup.

"Yes," Ghira said. "There's nothing like warm soup to warm the heart in times of trouble!"

"I was hoping we'd all get something more substantial," Winter said, "but this flavor is good."

"Sometimes flavor's all you need to keep it goin'," Qrow said. "You know, Hollie, you really do have a knack for this cooking thing."

"Hey," Hollie began, "if you ever need a wife or anything to cook for you after a hard day's work, I'm single."

Yang, Ruby, Qrow, and several others among the room either choked on their soup or spat some out.

"Did I just hear you right?" Winter asked her.

She didn't answer, smiling as she set more soup down on the table for the others. She was going to deliver a bowl to the only person missing from the group when Weiss picked up the tray, walking out of the dining room without saying a word.

"She really is distraught about him," Ghira said.

"Can you blame her?" Kali said. "After everything they've told us about what they've been through, it's hard not to imagine that she'd be extremely attached to him. I mean, she literally summoned him into our world from his own."

—

Weiss stopped with the tray in her hands as she stood before Bedivere's door. She was the only one who hadn't seen his face since he began his self-imposed isolation. The others had all seen him at least once, even though he never left his room. He had to eat, of course, and everybody but her had delivered him food. It wasn't that she didn't want to see him. It was just that he was so stupid and stubborn and wouldn't accept any help even if it meant pushing everyone away.

 _Kinda like me_ , she thought, lifting up her hand to knock on the door.

There was no answer at first.

"Bedivere? I...brought you some soup," she said.

There was movement from behind the door. She could hear his footsteps stop right on the other side of the thin wood panel, his shadow cast on the door. She looked up where his eyes would be. She had prepared her best smile to greet him with after almost three days, but as he slid the door open and their eyes met, she was flooded with that same fear that she had felt when his Wraith had first emerged. She felt her own heart skip a beat, her breathing stopping for a moment.

Bedivere noticed all of that. His Connection to her was stronger than ever, and being right in front of her like this, it was impossible not to feel the fear in her heart. But even more distressing than the psychic emotions entering him was that look in her eyes, that look of terror, as if he were a monster facing her down right this moment.

When it finally came to her that she was paralyzed, she shook her head, handing the tray over to him without a word. He, too, was silent as he took the tray from her. She bit her lower lip. She wanted to say something to him, but this was not the reunion she had expected. She could not get out of her mind the shadow that had surrounded his entire body on that day, the utter absence of light in his very core. She turned and walked away.

Bedivere closed his eyes for a moment before shutting his door and locking it behind him. He set the tray down on the desk before taking a seat on his bed, stooping over and burying his face in his hands, sobbing quietly to himself.

It was her eyes, eyes full of terror upon meeting him. That look alone was enough to shatter his soul into a million pieces.

—

The whole room quieted down as Weiss rejoined the group. She took a seat back in her place between Ruby and Blake, silently eating her soup. Any other day and she would have noticed the sudden quiet and scolded everyone for it, but not now.

 _What have I done?_ she thought as she rested her elbows on the table, leaning forward to hide her head between her arms and hands. _My reaction is sure to have pushed him even further away from me._ She closed her eyes, squeezing out tears. Realizing that she was making the entire room uncomfortable, she got up with her bowl and left to go eat in the garden. Winter was next to stand up with her bowl in hand, following after her younger sister.

"What do you think happened?" Jaune asked Nora.

"That's none of our business," Ren said. "Finish your soup before it gets cold."

Both of them glanced at Yang, who was resting her elbow on the table, leaning her head against her fist as she ate her soup. The two boys gave each other a look before continuing with their own soup.

—

Weiss ate her food in silence at the stone table in the campus garden. It was nice and quiet out here, peaceful, tranquil, the total opposite of what was in her heart. She took note of Winter out of the corner of her eye. Her sister was headed her way. She took a seat at the table on another bench, eating her own soup silently. Neither said a word to the other. Once Weiss was finished with her soup, she spent some time seated on the bench, idly staring at her empty bowl. Not once did she look over to Winter, who finished up her own soup soon after.

"If you need to talk," Winter began, "I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere."

Weiss nodded, still staring at her bowl. More than anything, she wanted to go back there, to go and see him and tell him that everything would be okay, but when she thought about how she had just reacted upon seeing him again for the first time in days, she became frustrated with herself. Why the hell had she done that? She couldn't just smile at him and lift up his spirits?

The other thing, which bothered her more than her reaction, was the fact that she really couldn't help it. The instant she laid eyes on him, she had been overcome by that same terror she had on that day when she first witnessed the Wraith.

No, she needed to be strong. She would go and see him again.

That was never going to work. Because even now, as she tried to work up the courage to see him, she could not push the unfathomable image of that otherworldly being out of her mind.

—

Weiss was standing in the middle of the grand hall of a magnificent castle, one she had only seen once in a dream she had not too long ago. From the looks of things, this was that place Bedivere had described to her, the place called Kameloth. It was just as splendid as she had remembered it, the stone pillars and walls and foundations all white and pure, each surface polished to a near-mirror sheen.

She turned around to face someone. His form was blurry, slowly coming into focus as he walked toward her. When he was within feet of her, he stopped, his face becoming clear. It was her knight. It was Sir Bedivere.

She looked up into his face, those soft, hazel eyes inviting her in. She found herself walking to him, nearly collapsing into his arms as he stroked her hair, which fell freely down her back. She felt something stirring within her, an unfamiliar sensation. Every care began to slough away. Nothing mattered anymore. The only important thing in the world was that they were here together, just the two of them. The rest of the world be damned.

Everything around them was on fire now, smoke rising into the heavens forever. The stench of rot and scorching wafted all around them. But that didn't matter to her. The world could burn for all she cared. As long as she was in his arms and he was in hers. Nothing else mattered.

"I am yours, Weiss," he whispered. "For all eternity. Nothing can separate us, not even death."

"I am yours as well, my gallant knight," she whispered back. "Though the world itself be damned to hell, I shall never let you go."

He smiled before holding her at arm's length, gazing deeply into her eyes before planting a kiss on her lips, one that consumed her very soul.

—

Weiss opened her eyes to the bright light of the broken moon shining in from her wall-sized window. _What the hell was that dream?_ she thought as she sat up and caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. Something sharp seemed to pierce her insides and she gasped, stooping over as she put a hand to her chest. She was breathing heavily, her heart racing. All she could think about now was him.

 _Bedivere,_ she thought, hurrying through the halls of the dorm to his room. His door was wide open, the moonlight shining through his room into the corridor. She stopped in the threshold. No one was inside, but there was something dark on the carpet. She walked in, turning on his light, gasping as she looked at a pool of blood in the middle of the room. A trail led out and she followed it down the hallway until she arrived at the front entrance to the dorm.

Bedivere was outside, in the middle of the grass, his whole body illuminated by the bright, broken moon above. He was holding something in his left hand, something that glinted in the moonlight. He was digging this implement into his right arm, which flashed with bright light as he stabbed and hacked away.

He threw the dagger off to the side. It was no use. No matter what he did to his right arm, it always healed itself completely. The Nexus's first and foremost drive was to preserve itself, after all. No amount of self-mutilation would ever succeed at destroying it. Or perhaps it was the Nexus's way of toying with him, allowing him to do some level of damage to it before fully repairing itself in an instant.

He knelt in the grass for some time, surrounded by a pool of his own blood, too much blood for one man's body to contain. He stared at the markings on his arm. The Nexus was what had undone the myriad of seals Bedivere had painstakingly placed upon the depths of his own soul to keep the Wraith from ever being released into the world again. But no matter what he tried to be rid of both, he could never separate himself from them. The Wraith was a part of who he was. So was this Nexus. Without one, the others could not exist.

Weiss gasped as he stood up. She hid behind the wall, listening to his footsteps get closer and closer to her. She balled her fists, gritting her teeth to fight off the sense of dread which was once again building up inside her. She had managed to at least calm her breathing by the time he stepped through the door, but her heartbeat must have been loud enough for him to hear.

She stood in place, her back against the wall. Bedivere stopped right next to her. They stood side by side for what felt to her like too long, but at the same time not long enough. Neither said a word. Neither looked at the other. She closed her eyes as he walked away from her, his footsteps quietly fading until she could hear his door slide shut, the lock clicking behind him.

—

"Okay, it's been days now," Winter said as the entire group assembled at the training hall. "You can't keep slacking forever, so Qrow and I are going to get all of you back into shape."

"Me, too?" Ghira said.

" _Especially_ you, hon," Kali said with a smile.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, nothing," she giggled lightly.

"Jeez," Blake said as she rolled her eyes.

"Wanna partner up?" Sun asked her.

"Yeah, yeah."

"I'm quite sure we have an even number," Winter said, "but if not, the last group will be a trio instead of a pair. Oscar, you're with me this round."

He swallowed before joining her.

"Don't be frightened, young man. You've already taken on so much more."

"Thanks," he said, working up some courage. He listened to Ozpin, who had agreed with Winter's assessment.

They were in the middle of training when they were joined by someone who hadn't been out of his room in days. He was dressed all in black, with his large sword hanging from behind. Everyone stopped as they noticed him walk into the training hall.

"So, you've finally decided to join us," Winter said, walking up to him. "I'm—"

"Winter Schnee," he said.

She hesitated. "Yes, her elder sister. Are you going to join us training?"

He didn't answer her question, following her silently to the middle of the room, which everyone started to clear up.

"I didn't say to break formation," she said, upon which everyone quickly returned to their ranks. "Now," she said, turning to Bedivere, who stood opposite of her. "I'm curious as to what you're made of. My sister has told me all about you and your exploits."

He flinched. _All about me, huh?_ he thought.

"She has told me that you have saved her life many times, that you have even trained all of these youngsters to the level that they now occupy."

"All I did was bring out what was already there," he said.

"I see. It's safe to presume, then, that you are a skilled swordsman?"

He didn't answer.

It was obvious to Winter that niceties weren't gonna cut it with this guy. She drew her saber, holding it out at him. He kept his sword sheathed.

"Well, then, are you ready?" she asked.

He gave her a single nod before she dashed at him full force. The rest of the class definitely cleared out the lines this time, standing at the benches instead. Winter was upon Bedivere in an instant, her Semblance acting almost completely instinctively to her combat style. But even though he had yet to draw his sword, she could not land a single blow on him.

 _He's not toying with me,_ she thought, carefully examining his body language as she continued her high-speed assault. _It's like he's not even interested in this fight. No, that's not it. He's holding back. Why is he holding back?_

She backed away from him, projecting several glyphs to launch a multi-stage Dust attack. He didn't look like he was going to dodge or counter.

 _Are you trying to die?_ Winter thought.

She watched as the aura around him seemed to change as he brought up his right hand. It was that hand that Weiss had mentioned, the hand that contained within it the so-called Nexus, which afforded him power similar to that of the Maidens. He whispered something into his palm, after which some kind of symbol appeared on the back of his hand, a five-sided geometric shape accompanied with unknown text that shone and circled around as if it were an animated projection.

Winter launched her attack, which created a big explosion of ice and fire and lightning, sending debris flying everywhere. When the cloud cleared away, he was still standing in the same spot, his right hand held up in front of his body, backhand facing her. His left hand was behind his back. There was a translucent spherical barrier surrounding his body, which shattered as the force of her attack overwhelmed it.

 _So,_ Winter thought. _That's the power of his Nexus._

He vanished, making her gasp and turn to where she next sensed his presence. His claymore was drawn and already swinging down at her from overhead. She jumped back, the tip of the sword missing her by an inch.

 _I see,_ she thought. _All that time you spent dodging was your way of ascertaining my fighting style._

They engaged into a high speed blade battle, which looked more like a blur of black and white as they vanished and reappeared at different sections of the room.

"I don't remember your sister moving that fast," Qrow said to Weiss. "Like, _ever_."

Weiss didn't answer. She was too focused on the fight to have even heard his comment. The last time Bedivere exhibited this demeanor in the middle of a battle was during his one-on-one with Adam. Was his Wraith going to be unleashed right now again? There certainly was something different about him today, but then again he had been different since that incident.

Someone gripped her hand. She looked to her side. It was Ruby, smiling at her. Even now, despite everything they had gone through, Ruby managed to maintain her innocence and that joy that was never far below the surface. Then again, there was also Penny, who didn't seem to be bothered by anything.

Winter let out a battle cry as she landed a heavy overhead strike on Bedivere's sword, the impact powerful enough to cause the ground beneath him to crater. His face was as ferocious as hers. In one swift move, he parried her sword before delivering a mighty swing to her torso. She gasped, unable to block the strike. He, too, let out a gasp as he realized what he was doing. He only barely managed to slow down his swing enough to keep from killing her outright, but the blow still had the force to send her flying and crashing into the wall, her aura completely broken.

"No!" Bedivere shouted before dropping his sword and dashing to her.

"Winter!" cried a few voices from the crowd.

Bedivere panted as he dug through the debris to find Winter. How could he have been so foolish? This was Winter Schnee, Weiss's elder sister, the one she looked up to the most. If anything happened to her he would never be able to forgive himself.

He found her lying beneath some wood splinters. He reached out with his right hand, summoning the power of his Nexus before willing all of the debris off of her. He reached down, assessing her. She was bleeding in a number of places, a consequence of her aura having been deactivated before she crashed into the wall.

"Winter, I'm sorry," he said, shouldering her up.

She chuckled. "Don't be sorry," she said. "I'm the one who screwed up. I didn't see that strike coming at all. Good hit, by the way."

It wasn't her intention, but that compliment fell upon him like a mountain of bricks. He met with Hillphire and Penny as he got her out of the hole in the wall.

"I am not detecting any serious injury," Penny said, quickly scanning her. "None of your bones are broken either."

"You got lucky," Hillphire said. "There weren't any major structural reinforcements in this wall. And you didn't crash into a toilet bowl or bathtub either." He entered a few commands into his scroll, directing his repair bots to fix the mess here. "That should take care of things."

"I recommend some rest," Penny said. "That's all you will need to recover your strength. Once your aura has been restored, your body should repair itself normally."

"Thank you, Penny," Winter said. She turned to Bedivere. "I think I can stand on my own now."

He nodded, letting her go.

"I was right about you. You are pretty handsome."

He knew she was sincerely complimenting him, but he couldn't take joy in it. He spotted Weiss, who was with the rest of the group. She was looking at him in shock. He turned away, gritting his teeth and clenching his fists. He couldn't bear to look at her now, not after what he had just done to her big sister, the one who inspired her. He hurried out of the training hall.

Yang looked over at Weiss, who was staring at the ground. She put a hand on her shoulder before jogging out after him. She looked left and right, spotting him heading out to the front courtyard.

"Hey!" she said, catching up to him.

He stopped walking, but he neither answered her nor turned to face her.

"Bedivere."

His right hand began to shake, the Nexus stirring again. "Be silent!"

She was taken aback, about to say something in return when she noticed his right hand shaking violently. She jogged to where he stood, facing him. He was trying to calm his hand down when she reached out with her own hand, the one that was still human. The gentlest touch from her was enough to quiet his hand completely.

He looked at her, his hazels meeting with her lavenders. He took a deep breath to try and slow down his breathing.

"Funny," she said with a small smile. "I get the jitters every now and then, too. And it's this hand that always gets it."

She brought up her left hand, the one that had just stopped his right hand from shaking.

"Yang," he said quietly.

"You don't have to say anything. I just want you to know...that you're not alone. Even if Weiss is scared to death of you right now and you don't feel like you can even look her in the eye, you've still got me."

"Why?"

She shrugged. "I don't have an answer for you. It's just...you've always been there for us. For all of us. Someone's got to stand up for you when you're going through shit."

"I don't deserve your mercy."

His hand began to shake again and she took it in hers once more and it calmed back down. She held on to it for some time.

"I know what it's like to stand alone," she said. "And it's not a pleasant thing. So, I'm not gonna let you stand alone."

"It's better for everyone if I'm alone."

"Maybe. But that isolation will end up destroying you. I don't wanna see that happen."

He looked back up at her. Her lavender eyes were filled with sincerity. She meant every single word she had just said. They spent some time out in the courtyard together, just the two of them. It was strange, but Yang really was the only one who could stand with him right now. Perhaps it was because she hadn't seen what Weiss had become too familiar with. Or maybe it was because they had shared an intimate moment in the Labyrinth of her own heart. It didn't matter. None of it mattered.

Because in the end, Yang was right. He did need someone to stand with him right now.


	35. Chapter XXXV

CHAPTER XXXV

 _Kindred Hearts_

Bedivere was up early for training. The sun hadn't even risen yet. Winter was already up as well, heading to the kitchen for a quick bite.

"Good morning," he greeted her.

She looked at him for a bit. "You seem a little different from yesterday," she said, grabbing some cereal and milk.

He grabbed two bowls and spoons for either of them and set them on the table. They sat across from each other as they ate.

"I apologize for yesterday," Bedivere said. "I almost killed you."

"I would've deserved it," she said. "I let my guard down for an instant, which is long enough for the enemy to land a fatal blow."

"But we're not enemies."

"No, we aren't, but a mistake is a mistake, whether one is on the battlefield or in the middle of training."

"I, too, made a mistake. I allowed my temperance to break down while training with an ally."

"How about this, then? I will be sure not to let my guard down again and you be sure not to lose control."

"It is a deal."

"Good. Finish up breakfast so we can have a rematch before the rest of the kids wake up."

—

Qrow was awake before the youngsters, which surprised him more than anything. He yawned before taking a swig from his flask and heading to the training hall, where there was a lot of commotion. He leaned against the doorway, watching as Bedivere and Winter exchanged high-speed sword clashes. She projected a number of glyphs, using some as platforms and others in more offensive roles. Bedivere responded with attacks from his Nexus.

They fell into a blade deadlock and struggled with each other for a bit before Winter managed to gain the upper hand and tripped him, moving in for a stab before he deflected her saber with his dagger, which he had pulled out from behind at the last second. He put some distance between them, holding both weapons out at his opponent while Winter also broke her sword into two pieces as well. They were about to engage in another scuffle when Bedivere noticed Qrow leaning in the doorway. Winter also noticed him, but as she promised, she didn't let her guard down.

"Perhaps we should end this bout for now," Bedivere said.

"Agreed," she said, recombining and sheathing her sword as her opponent did the same.

Qrow clapped slowly as he approached them. "I'm glad you two are getting along well," he said, "considering what happened yesterday."

"Yesterday was a mistake," she said, "which has been corrected today."

He turned to Bedivere, who was standing in the middle of the ring with his arms across his chest. "What, you wanna have another go at it with me, too?"

"Only if you are feeling up to the challenge," Bedivere said.

"Ohoho, you have a little duel with a beautiful Schnee princess and all of a sudden you've got life back in ya, huh?"

Winter glared at him.

"I don't think she liked your remark," Bedivere said with a grin.

"She never likes anything about me," Qrow said. "And yet she can't keep her hands off me."

"Qrow," she said. "You. Me. Now."

"Whoa-ho-ho! If you want me so bad, you shoulda just said something!"

Bedivere chuckled to himself before clearing out of the middle.

—

Weiss had been awake for a while now, but she spent some time in her room before leaving. She sat before her armoire, brushing her long, snow-white hair in front of her mirror. She hadn't changed out of her nightgown yet, but there was no hurry. All they had planned today were more exercises and drills.

She picked up the locket that Bedivere had made for her, the one that contained the first picture of them together. She opened it up. In the panel behind the blue opal was the photograph. He was standing behind her, a whole head taller. This wasn't all that long ago, two months, give or take a week. He was her rock then, the solid foundation upon which she could lean if ever she felt overburdened. Now, though, she needed to find the strength to stand not just for herself, but for him as well. How the times changed so quickly.

The problem she needed to overcome was that sheer terror that washed over her every time she came near to him. That's probably what broke her heart more than anything, the fact that she could not stop feeling such dread in his presence. He used to be her light and now, he actively sucked her light away. At least, that's how she felt.

A tear rolled down her cheek, surprising her. She put a finger to the teardrop, looking at it for a moment before wiping the rest away. She looked at the locket again, admiring his strong features behind and above her. Both appeared to be facing the other side of the locket, the half that contained the red black opal on the outside. This half of the locket contained an inscription of the words that he spoke only for her.

 _Ich bin dein für alle Ewigkeit._

"I am yours for all Eternity," she whispered. She closed her eyes as she shut the locket, holding it to her heart. If only she could live up to her side of the relationship. Just one little shadow and she turns into a scared little girl? That wouldn't do. Not after everything he'd done for her. No way, she had to be strong.

But the moment she stood up, the resolution within her heart vanished. The mere thought of having to see him again, to remember that pitch blackness that surrounded his heart on that day, it was enough to crush her. She gripped the locket close to her chest before walking over to her bed and sitting on top of it against the wall. She pulled her legs in close, crying to herself, loathing her own weakness. Her knight deserved someone who wasn't terrified of a little darkness. That someone wasn't her.

—

"Hey, Weiss hasn't come out of her room, has she?" Ruby said to Nora.

"No, I haven't seen her leave," she said. "Why do you ask?"

"It's not like her to miss out on a day of training."

"Yeah, but she's probably locking herself up for a reason."

They both peeked past the line of people down at Bedivere, who was standing at the opposite end of them, watching the bouts intently. Right now, it was Qrow and Winter vs. Ghira and Kali in empty-handed training duels.

"I wish I could do something for the both of them," Ruby said.

"We could bake them cupcakes," Penny said.

Ruby and Nora turned to her.

"Huh? Was that a bad idea?"

"No, Penny," Nora said with a sigh, throwing an arm around her teammate. "It wasn't a bad idea. I just don't know if it'll work for the two of them."

"Oh. I was just thinking about it because food seems to make _your_ day a little brighter all the time!"

Ruby giggled.

"She's not wrong about that, you know," Ren said.

"Hey, did Hollie ever teach you how to make that Stoplight Chicken?" Nora asked.

"You mean my Lemon Pepper Pepper Chicken?" Hollie growled.

"Yeah, that!"

"She has taught me," Ren said with a chuckle, "but I still gotta get the cooking right. I've got the proportions of ingredients just perfect, but I can't seem to get the chicken as tender as she can get it."

"Because you let it sit too long," Hollie said.

"Oh, right. You turn it every five minutes, right?"

"Yup. That's how you get the lemon and pepper flavor deep into the chicken."

"Are you gonna practice on me tonight?" Nora asked Ren, clinging to his arm.

He looked over at her. She was beaming, her eyes twinkling in the light. "Sure, I'll practice on you," he chuckled.

"Aww, yiss!"

"You haven't tried her Lemon Pepper Pepper Chicken, have you?" Ruby asked Penny, who shook her head. "You've gotta. Hollie can you make some tonight?"

"If y'all help me get the ingredients," she said.

"Nothing like food to pave the way to a girl's heart!" Nora said.

Meanwhile, Ghira and Kali had won the training match against Winter and Qrow, who, despite their prowess with their weapons, simply did not have the aptitude for hand-to-hand combat.

"That's something you _all_ need to work on," Bedivere said, stepping up to the ring with Hillphire.

"Oooh, I've been waiting for this," Yang said.

"I think we all have," Blake said.

"Hillphire may be an excellent swordsman," Bedivere said, thrusting his sword into the ground beside him, "but he is also adept at hand-to-hand combat."

Hillphire thrust his own sword into the ground, that great sword that could transform into a double-headed axe and then split into two smaller single-headed axes.

"Shall we demonstrate for everyone?" Bedivere asked his training partner.

"By all means," Hillphire said, holding a hand out in gesture.

Both men took off their coats, tossing them to the side before stretching and warming up in place. Once their joints were freely mobile, they broke into fighting stances, steadily nearing one another before Hillphire held out a fist, which Bedivere touched with his own. As soon as they made contact, both somersaulted away from one another before dashing forward, engaging in a marvelous show of exquisite pugilism.

Bedivere was right about Hillphire. Though the master blacksmith and engineer was an expert with all of the weapons at his disposal, in unarmed combat he seemed to be as adept as Bedivere himself. Both were evenly matched, though, of course, Bedivere had yet to use the power of his Nexus. Given that Hillphire had no such tool at his disposal, perhaps it was mere courtesy on the part of the knight.

"Why don't you throw a fireball or two at me?" Hillphire said as they squared off.

"Because it would be useless," Bedivere said. "You are more than capable of using your aura to deflect my own attack back at me."

"Ah, so you know about that, do you?"

"I've seen you utilize it more than once in your past match-ups."

"Serves me right for thinking I could keep that bit hidden from a Knight of Kameloth!"

They engaged in another scuffle. Bedivere managed to trip Hillphire to the ground, but the latter quickly redirected and executed a perfect takedown on his opponent. To keep from turning the fight into a ground wrestling match, Bedivere rolled out of the way, breaking Hillphire's grip on him at the same time before both fighters rushed at one another again.

They grasped hands, both of them straining to bring the other down to the ground. Eventually, one went for a low kick, with the other deflected with his leg and it became a deadlocked low-kick battle with each one simultaneously trying to wrestle the other to the ground. Hillphire was the one to end the deadlock with a high kick, which Bedivere dodged as he broke his grip on his opponent. Both somersaulted away from one another, each one glancing at their weapons, which were equidistant from the center of the ring.

Each one broke into a sprint toward their swords. The instant he gripped his weapon, Bedivere summoned up his knightly armor while Hillphire entered a command into a metal wristband. In seconds, he was surrounded by a lightened version of his full suit of powered armor. The heavier version was powered by a Dust reactor in his backpack, which provided him with as much output as Penny's own Dust reactor. This light version was powered directly by his aura and smaller Dust micro-cells at the wrists, boots, and belt.

Thus began the duel between two knights, one powered by magic and the other powered by technology. The sword clashes were spectacular, both knights displaying unrivaled prowess with their weapons and technique. Blade deadlocks lasted mere seconds, with both resuming their scuffles quickly. At some points, Hillphire transformed his great sword into a double-headed hand-axe for heavier attacks, but Bedivere's fighting prowess would not allow such blows to hinder him. Dual hand axes didn't work either. Even though Hillphire was fast with an axe in either hand, Bedivere's swordsmanship was beyond expert-level and he had to switch back to sword mode to match him.

Eventually, Bedivere began incorporating magical attacks into his fighting style, but Hillphire had his own upgrades to show off. Both gauntlets had been infused with a modified Dust-projection system, allowing him to use Dust in a similar fashion to Bedivere's arm. Small explosions of fire, ice, and lightning dotted the whole fighting arena as their projectile attacks clashed in midair, canceling out completely.

"This way, I don't have to use up my own aura," Hillphire said, squaring off with Bedivere.

"Clever indeed," Bedivere said before dashing forward to engage him in another blade clash.

They were completely evenly matched. From what Qrow could tell, Bedivere wasn't holding back either. They both gave it their all and were still neck and neck. The only real advantage Bedivere had was his Nexus, which, after all they'd seen, appeared to be more of a liability than a true source of power.

They got into another blade deadlock, which lasted much longer than the others, with both men trying to push hard into the other. Giving way to use the opponent's momentum wasn't going to work this time. Each one knew how the other operated and both were prepared for just about everything the other had to throw. They were going to continue on another offensive when Bedivere's hand began to shake, that hand which contained the Nexus.

"Bedivere," Hillphire said.

"It's nothing!" the knight said.

"No, we have to stop. Your Nexus is acting up."

Letting out a heavy sigh, Bedivere backed away from the deadlock, driving his sword into the ground. His armor vanished from his body. Hillphire also deactivated his armor system before sheathing his sword. Bedivere held up his hand, watching it shake. Even grabbing it with his left hand did little to stop it, but it stilled itself when Yang ran up to him, touching it with her human hand. He looked over at her, hazel eyes locking with lavender eyes.

"Don't turn me away," Yang said quietly to him.

He gave her a single nod. Meanwhile, Hillphire and the rest of the crew watched closely. It wasn't lost on anyone that the gap between him and Weiss was growing while he and Yang came closer together. They did spend a lot of time together while Weiss and Bedivere mostly avoided one another. Even now, Weiss was absent from their training day.

Yang let out a sigh as she let go of his hand, which had finally calmed back down. She turned to Hillphire with a smirk.

"Dude," she said. "That armor though."

"Do you like it?" he asked.

"Fuck yeah."

"Oh, right, you didn't see him fight," Bedivere said. "Team RWBY was outside the city the entire time."

"No, but I did hear about it," Yang said. "Nice job handling those Grimm, Will!"

Hillphire smiled sheepishly, scratching his head. "Oh, speaking of armor." He looked to Bedivere.

"Is it finished?" Bedivere asked.

"It is. I made the last touches before I went to bed. There were a few upgrades I thought to add, given the new tech Penny and I are both using."

"What are you two talking about?" Yang said.

"Nothing," Bedivere said.

"Bullshit it's nothing. This has to do with what I said, huh?"

Bedivere turned to the rest of the crew, who were preparing to partner up for some line exercises. "Hillphire, Yang, and I will be heading to the forge. Will you all be fine?"

"What are you doing at the forge?" Winter asked.

He glanced at Yang, who threw her golden hair back. "Upgrades," he said.

"Very well. So long as you all return for our final exercise for the day."

"Will do, madam."

"'Winter' is fine," she said with a smile.

He returned her smile before leaving with Hillphire and Yang, the latter of whom could not contain her curiosity.

"So," Yang said, skipping ahead of the two men and walking backwards in pace with them. "What's this we're going to the forge for? You got a surprise for me or something?"

"If I told you," Bedivere said, "it wouldn't be a surprise, would it?"

"Oh, I see. So you're really not gonna tell me, huh?"

He shook his head with a smile.

"That's enough, you two," Hillphire said. "No need to hype her up any more than you already have."

"Boy, I live for the hype!" Yang said, performing a little hop. She missed her footing and yelped as she regained her balance. Bedivere chuckled with Hillphire. "What are you two laughing about, huh?"

"Nothing," they said at the same time.

She frowned at them.

"Oh," Bedivere said as they passed by a food booth. "Are either of you hungry?"

"I'm starving!" Yang said, running to the booth. "You treating us out?"

"Of course. I'm the one who suggested it."

"I'll have the large beef bowl, please," Hillphire said to the clerk.

"Yakisoba for me!" Yang said. "Oh, spicy pork flavor, please. And with extra onions!"

"I'll have the teriyaki flavored yakisoba," Bedivere said.

"You mean, teriyakisoba?"

He looked at her, she was grinning. He couldn't stop his own grin from forming. There was something charming about all of her linguistic joking. They continued to the forge as they ate from their disposable bowls.

"You mean, disposabowls, right?" she said with an open-mouthed grin.

"Yang!" Hillphire said.

Bedivere gave her a high five and she made a fist in victory.

"You're just not cool enough, Will," she joked.

"Uh-huh," Hillphire said.

Yang's excitement was impossible to conceal when they came within sight of the forge, which, by now, had been fully stocked and staffed by men and women not just from Mistral, but from Winter's military detachment. She ran ahead of the two men.

"C'mon!" she yelled back to them. "I'm not gonna wait up for you!"

Bedivere shrugged at Hillphire before jogging to catch up with her. Hillphire let out a heavy sigh, shaking his head.

"What the heck are you doing?" he said quietly.

"I'm never gonna get over this place," Yang said, looking around at all the weapons Hillphire had made.

In addition to his own private workshop, there was now a full-blown factory which mass-produced robotic infantry suits similar to the one he wore, only not as specialized as his. There was also a section dedicated to the manufacturing of standard defensive implements, Dust-infused armor, swords, spears, and axes that doubled as firearms, among other things. His custom shop was reserved for individual Huntsmen whose needs were more specialized.

"Still, you aren't as excited as Ruby," Bedivere said.

"You mean my cute little sister?" Yang said. "She is cute, isn't she?"

He chuckled. "She's adorable."

"I know, right?"

He admired her long, flowing, golden hair as she walked ahead of him. Every stride she took was deliberate, confident, perfectly matching her tall and straight posture. She always had a grin on her face, too, especially now with that excitement that she could no longer contain. Bedivere had to admit that she possessed a certain attractiveness to her that most women did not.

"C'mon, you can't keep a girl waiting like this!" she said, turning to him as they walked into another part of the machine shop.

"It should be in his custom work area," he said. "Back there."

She walked past all the workers and general manufacturing area to the custom shop, the old part of the forge that was once the only place where any work was done. From there, they went into the warehouse that contained all of the custom work he did for his clients.

"There it is," Bedivere said, stopping in the middle of the room.

Yang looked around. Her eyes immediately landed on a yellow and black motorcycle at the back of the room.

"No," she said, her jaw dropping and her eyes widening. "No fucking way." She turned to him. "You didn't."

He shrugged with a grin.

She power walked to the bike, standing mere inches away from it, admiring the aggressive fascia and four headlights. The bike itself was futuristic in appearance, with sleek lines and curves. The tires were hidden from outside view, fully encased in protective paneling. She wondered if there were even tires underneath all that. It sure didn't look like it.

"Dude," she said before slurping up some drool she didn't even realize was there.

Bedivere couldn't help but laugh. "That was gross," he said.

"Psh. You know you liked it. But, dude. This. I mean. What."

"All he did was provide the funding," Hillphire said, joining them. "I'm the one who picked the bike and did all the modding."

"Modding, huh?" Yang said.

"Mm-hmm. You wanna bring it out?"

"Fuck yeah I wanna bring it out!"

Hillphire gave Bedivere a glance as he hit a few buttons on his scroll, opening up a garage door to the outdoor testing grounds, where only his most destructive of weapons were taken out.

"Dude, this balances on its own without a stand?" Yang said.

"Like I said, modified," Hillphire said.

She grinned as she rolled the motorcycle to the outdoor testing ground. "Too bad there's no highways around."

"I can confirm, though, that it can reach speeds in excess of two hundred kilometers per hour."

"Bullshit."

"Of course, we don't have any straight, paved roads that run long enough around the city for you to really enjoy that kind of speed."

"What's the zero to a hundred?"

"Two and a half seconds."

"Fuck me!"

"Four hundred meters in exactly 9.7 seconds."

She grabbed Bedivere's hand and put both his middle and forefinger to her wrist. "Do you feel that?" she said.

"Yes," he chuckled. "I don't have to feel your pulse to tell you're excited."

"Excited? Fuck, this is turning me on!"

Hillphire watched as she went back to the motorcycle. "If you think those stats are exhilarating, you should see its other function."

"Other function?" she said.

"Yes. I had Bedivere steal your arm—"

"That's why it was warm!" she said.

Both men looked at each other curiously.

"What the hell did you do with my arm, huh?"

"I just programmed it for the bike." He looked at Bedivere. "What did _you_ do with her arm?"

"I only carried it back to her room!" Bedivere said, flustered. "What the hell else would I do with it?"

"You must've been holding on to it tightly to get it that warm."

"Well, of course! I didn't want it falling and getting scratched!"

"Oh, is _that_ the reason?" Yang said with a smirk.

"W-What exactly are you insinuating?" Bedivere said, his voice higher than normal.

"Nothing, nothing. So, now you've got me all curious. Why did you need to program my arm?"

"Do you see a slot to the right of the ignition switch?" Hillphire said.

"Yeah. It looks just big enough to fit my hand in."

"When you insert your hand, you'll feel five slots for all five of your fingers. Once your fingers are in position, make a fist."

She sat on the motorcycle, getting a feel for it before leaning forward to fully position herself on it. She grinned, the cold steel of the bike touching her bare midriff. It felt good to be back on the road.

"Keep in mind all of the mods were performed by me," Hillphire said, "but everything was his idea."

She looked over at Bedivere, sharing a grin with him before inserting her hand into the slot on the right and making a fist as Hillphire had directed. Her eyes widened as the entire bike transformed, encasing her whole body in a suit of armor not that different from the one Hillphire wore, except that this one was black and yellow in color.

"Holy shit," she mumbled, looking down at her hands and the rest of her body. "Oh, if only Ruby could see this."

"The entire suit," Hillphire began, "is designed to synergize with not only your fighting style, but your existing equipment. Your gauntlets interface directly with the armor, but the armor also contains its own abilities to propel itself—"

Both men shielded themselves as some kind of thruster activated and Yang went flying at one of the targets downrange, delivering a powerful punch that pulverized the concrete silhouette. She blasted off in another direction, whooping and cheering as she flew from target to target, annihilating every single one with only one strike each.

"One-punch girl," Hillphire said with a chuckle.

"I'm amazed she didn't even need any instruction," Bedivere said.

"I did program the system to interface directly with her existing bionic arm, which is already programmed to respond to her nerve input perfectly. Through that arm alone, the entire suit responds to her muscle movements and acts as an extension of her entire body."

"Much in the same way your armor works."

"Yes, except that I need to have five points of input, my wrists, feet, and belt. She has a direct feed through that hand of hers."

"Still, it's amazing she's gotten the hang of it in just seconds."

"You mean the Yang of it," she said as she landed right in front of them. "Okay, now how do I turn this off?"

"Take your hand out of the terminal," Hillphire said.

"But it's turned into a friggin' glove. How the heck do I get my hand out of it?"

"Use your other hand."

"Duh," Bedivere said.

"Ha-ha, you're so funny," she said before reaching over with her other hand to "remove" the "glove." Once her prosthesis had been disengaged from the armor gauntlet, the suit of armor morphed back into motorcycle form. "Damn, that was awesome," she said, sitting up on it.

"I figured you'd like it," Bedivere said.

She smiled at him. "You know, I was joking around when I said you owed me a bike."

"Well, I took it seriously."

She chuckled. "Would you look at that. A guy who keeps his promises to girls."

"We should probably be heading back up now," Hillphire said. "Winter did say we needed to be back for the final exercises of the day."

"I think I wanna stay out here for a bit," Yang said, rolling the bike around the building to the street. "Hey, does this thing have wheels?"

"Not exactly. It's a wheel-less design that uses gravity Dust in reverse polarization to move around. Anyway, I really think we should get back."

"You go on ahead without us. We're gonna hit the town."

"We?" He looked at Bedivere, who shrugged. "Is this really a good idea?"

"Why wouldn't it be?" Yang said. "You think Winter's gonna be _that_ mad if we missed one day of training?"

"That's...not exactly what I was referring to. Well, you're both adults. I'll see you when I see you."

They watched as he walked up the street back to Mistral.

"Anyway," Yang said, turning to Bedivere. "Hop on!"

"Huh?"

"I'm not gonna ride next to you while you walk, dumbass. Get on already!"

He chuckled before hopping on the bike behind her.

"You better hold on."

"To you?"

She glanced over her shoulder at him. "Why, are you shy?"

"Well, maybe a little."

She grinned before starting the motorcycle, which hummed to life. Instead of the usual growl of a standard engine, this one had what sounded like an electronic whine to it.

"I was serious about holding on," she said. "I wanna see if this baby really can get down this stretch in less than ten seconds."

"If you insist," he said, placing his hands on her waist.

She felt a tingle run down her back as he touched her, leaning forward against her to balance himself.

"You know how to lean, right?" she asked him.

"This is my first time on such a machine," he said.

"Oh? Well, I'm gonna put you through the ride of your life, then!"


	36. Chapter XXXVI

CHAPTER XXXVI

 _An Evanescent Dream_

Bedivere was correct about his expectations. Riding through the streets of Mistral on the back of a motorcycle was a far cry from riding on horseback in the woods.

"I'm surprised you leaned so good on the turns with me," Yang said. "You got the hang of it pretty quick."

"You mean the Yang of it?" he said.

She chuckled with him as she got up off the bike, which self-balanced on the curb.

"So, where are we?" he asked.

"Doesn't look familiar to you?" Yang said.

He looked up at the establishment. It was the same place they had shared drinks at before the big battle for Mistral. The music wasn't as loud now as it had been that night. The sun was still up, just barely making its journey to the horizon. The night crowd was probably still sleeping.

"C'mon, big guy," Yang said, leading the way in.

"We're not going to get drunk again, are we?" he asked hesitantly.

She laughed. "No, they only serve coffee this early."

"Coffee? At a nightclub?"

"Café by day, club by night. Look at the sign."

He read the marquee. "'Day and Night Coffee and Drinks.' Clever."

She chuckled, opening the door for both of them. They grabbed an unoccupied table in the corner, ordering hot drinks from the waitress. The armchairs were comfortable, practically cuddling their occupants as they sat in them.

"I didn't know you liked frothy coffee," Yang said.

"I didn't know you liked tea lattes," Bedivere said.

" _Green_ tea lattes."

"Of course."

"Here are you drinks!" the waitress said.

"Thank you very much," Bedivere said, handing her a generous tip.

"You really don't hold back, do you?" Yang said.

"One of a knight's first and foremost duties is courtesy."

"What about courtship?"

He stopped as he drank, glancing up at her over his mug. She was gently swaying to the soft electronic music in the background. It wasn't as high-energy as what would probably be playing in a few hours, but there was enough of a beat to it to compel anyone to at least tap the feet to the rhythm.

"C'mon," she said, leaning over the table to get closer to him. "Don't tell me you never did that thing back in your home world. I mean, you're a genuine, real-deal knight, right? Surely you had a lot of ladies back home."

He wiped his mouth as he set his drink down. She was smiling at him, her shoulders barely moving to the beat in the background. The music was accompanied by vocals sung by a woman with a soft, ethereal voice. It may as well have been a ghost whispering into his ear. He felt a foot gently touch his.

"So, you gonna give me the silent treatment?" she said with an even more flirtatious smile.

He couldn't stop the smile from forming on his own face. Hillphire was right about one thing. This was definitely a bad idea.

But sometimes it's the bad ideas that are so good.

She leaned her head on her hand, reaching back and twirling her golden hair with her finger. It was impossible for him to ignore what they had gone through in that other reality, where her desires and fears mingled into one as they shared passionate night after passionate night. It was worst for him because he lived all of those existences out side by side. He was simultaneously with Yang in lust as he lived a full life with Weiss in her ideal world full of love and beauty.

"So," she said, her smile still seducing him. "Do you just enjoy staring at me silently? Or is this how courtship was for you?"

He listened closely to the lyrics of the music in the background. One line in particular stood out to him.

 _Do you love me?_

Without another word, she slowly stood up from her chair, still moving to the soft electronic music. She turned her back to him, standing in full view as she started dancing, her eyes closed as she allowed the music to take her over completely. He leaned back in his armchair, coffee in hand, sipping slowly as he watched her dance, the lines of her young, womanly body captivating him, her long, flowing, golden hair shimmering in the overhead lights. His eyes explored her entire body, from the very top down to her boots. She wore shorts today, exposing her strong, shapely legs. Her top was half-cut, showing off her midriff.

She turned to face him, dancing more and more seductively. He leaned his elbow on his armrest, resting his cheek on his thumb as the rest of his fingers covered his mouth. His eyes were the only things moving, watching her as she danced closer and closer to him. She moved the table out of the way to make room. Eventually, he was leaning all the way back in his chair, looking up at her.

She placed her hands on his knees, her eyes closed as she continued to dance for him. There were a few other eyes around the café that were aimed in their direction. Some of them were probably thinking what a lucky guy Bedivere was while others likely thought how early it was for such behavior.

Yang ended her dance as she sat in the large, comfortable armchair between his legs, leaning back against him as he put a hand on her waist, the other casually holding his mug so he could finish his coffee. She felt his hand move until it made contact with her bare abdomen.

"I probably shouldn't be doing this," she whispered.

"You probably shouldn't," Bedivere said into her ear, his deep voice making her hairs stand on end.

Nevertheless, she continued to stay in the armchair, which was large enough to accommodate them both. She leaned her head back onto his shoulder until she could see his face. She turned to him. Their mouths were separated by mere inches.

 _What am I doing?_ she thought as she quickly stood up, facing away from him. She put one hand to her forehead, the other on her hip. _I can't do this. Not with Weiss's..._

A hand placed itself on her hip, right over her own hand, that bionic replacement for the one she had lost against Adam, the same guy that Bedivere's Wraith completely toyed with when it emerged into the world. It was Bedivere's Nexus hand that was covering her own false hand.

She felt him press up against her, moving to the music. She, too, moved along with the beat. She closed her eyes as he danced with her, softly at first, then more vigorously as the beat picked up, but the dancing never got too intense, eventually calming back down with the music.

 _Why?_ she asked herself.

His other hand was on her hip now as well and she brought down her human hand to cover his human hand. They moved ever so gently together, their bodies as one. This was so wrong, and she knew it. But at the same time, it felt so right. The playful flirting she had constantly done with him since they first met was merely jest at first, but she could not deny the spark between them, especially when they shared so much with each other.

Not to mention their shared experience in the Labyrinth. She could still feel his warm touches and kisses as if it only happened yesterday, his strong body propping her up against the wall, holding her up as she straddled him, and weighing down on her as they lay in her bed together.

She felt her face redden as all of those memories flooded her mind. He must have been feeling the same things at this moment. After all, just as she refused to walk away from this, he, too, stayed with her.

"Bedivere," she said quietly, leaning back against him.

"What is it?" he whispered into her ear.

"We need to stop."

"I know."

In spite of that, they continued to dance closely with one another, his head leaning forward on her shoulder, hers leaning back into his. Why were either of them behaving like this? Neither even had a taste of liquor. Hell, they were drinking coffee and tea!

"Were our drinks spiked?" she said.

"Not our drinks," he said. "Our hearts."

The words made hers skip a beat. Maybe several. Eventually, the music stopped playing as the album changed to a different artist. It was fortunate, for if it weren't for that gap in the music, they might have gone further than just dancing.

"I need to use the ladies' room," Yang said, hurrying away as Bedivere ordered another coffee and green tea latte for his companion. She ran into the women's restroom, leaning against the counter in front of the mirror. She stared into her own eyes, evaluating herself. She had gotten _that_ close to betraying a friendship, something she swore a long time ago never to do.

But the feeling of being in his arms like that was something she couldn't deny felt good. She might even go as far as saying that it felt right.

No, that was surely that stupid Labyrinth speaking.

Or was it?

Was she falling in love with him?

She opened up the tap, splashing her face with cold water before looking at herself in the mirror again.

"Get a hold of yourself, Yang," she said quietly before drying off her face and leaving. When she got back to the table, there was already another green tea latte waiting for her. Bedivere was still in his armchair, clearly in deep thought. He took a sip from his mug before spotting her and sitting up straight in his chair.

"You good?" she asked him as she sat in her chair.

He nodded. "You?"

She nodded as well.

They spent the next half hour in complete silence. Even though this new music was similar to the last album, Yang found it hard to sway to it anymore. Bedivere also averted his eyes from her the entire time. Eventually, he noticed her start to get uncomfortable, even to the point that she started sobbing.

"Yang?" he said. "Is something the matter?"

"No," she lied through tears.

"I am here to listen if you need an ear."

She chuckled. "I know. I just need to do this alone."

He shifted in his chair. "You said to me that you would never let me stand alone. I refuse to allow you to stand alone either."

She looked over at him, unsure lavender eyes meeting with confused hazel eyes. "It's nothing."

"Is it the Labyrinth?"

"It's more than just the stupid Labyrinth. It's...it's me, it's you, it's Weiss, it's that asshole Adam, it's everything."

He watched as she stood up and walked away. He set his mug down half-finished and followed her out of the building. She was standing on the sidewalk in front of her bike when she stopped, placing both hands on her hips. He kept his distance, giving her a chance to collect her thoughts, which were likely all over the place now. Eventually, she turned around. Her eyes were overflowing.

"Look at me!" she sobbed. "I'm a fucking mess right now!"

"We all have those moments," he said. "It does not imply weakness. That is also why we have one another, is it not?"

"Is that really true?"

He was stumped. "What do you mean?"

"Forget it. It's stupid."

"It's not stupid, Yang. Talk to me."

She sighed heavily. "I mean, you've got Weiss, she's got you. Blake's got Sun, Nora's got Ren, Penny's got Hillphire, and hell, Ruby's got Hillphire, Jaune, _and_ Oscar. Hollie's even got my uncle. Who do I have? Nobody."

"That isn't true," Bedivere said, walking closer to her. "You have all of us."

"It's not the same."

"You have me."

She looked up at him, hazels and lavenders locking together. In the next second, her hands were on his cheeks and her mouth was less than an inch from his. She could feel his heavy breathing on her lips as she, too, panted, both of them breathing each other's air. She could feel her own pulse throbbing in her chest and hands.

Neither moved for a long time. It was Bedivere who chose to break everything off, leaning his forehead against hers instead. She, too, leaned against him, letting out a sigh of relief. At least one of them had the strength to be the better person.

"Yang," he said. "I cannot deny that I feel something for you."

"Oh, god," she sighed, backing away from him. "Why the fuck did you have to say that?"

"But I need to make things right with Weiss. I made a vow to her, to be her knight and hers alone."

She nodded.

"Perhaps...perhaps in another time, in another world, in another place, it could have been you and I. But in this world, it cannot be."

"I know."

"It's just..."

She awaited the rest of his words. He stood in silence for some time before his face twisted into one of pain.

"Every time..." he managed.

"What is it?" she said.

"I cannot stand how she looks at me with such fear in her eyes. And to know that I am the source of her fear."

Yang looked off to the side. It was true that Weiss had been avoiding him for the last few days. At first, she had attributed it to her just giving him space. He was the kind of guy who needed room from time to time, after all. But now...

"Because of your Wraith?" she said.

He nodded. "The Connection Semblance I have with her, ostensibly it permits me to feel what she feels in order to serve her better, but this Wraith within me...it's such a powerful thing that the Connection somehow reversed and she was able to perceive its true form. Even now, as we stand here, I can feel her utter terror of it."

"I had...no idea."

"I've tried everything to rid myself of it, even to the point of trying to sever my own arm. It was this godforsaken Nexus which undid all of the seals that took me years to erect around my Wraith."

"Wait, so that was your blood in the hallways?"

"You saw that?"

"I helped Weiss clean it up before everyone else was awake."

He let out an ironic chuckle. "That was the second time you both saw that much blood come out of me."

"That's not funny."

"You're right, it isn't."

"Anyway, what the fuck is this Wraith thing?"

"It's...a long story."

"We have time."

She took his silence as to mean that he didn't want to talk about it. Or, at the very least, he was not yet ready to talk about it.

"Hop on," she said, getting on her bike. "Let's head back."

"It might be best if we went separately," he said.

She looked at him for a while before giving her own nod. She started the engine. Before she could take off, she felt his human hand touch her own human hand. She looked at him.

"I meant what I said," he said. "If it were another reality..."

She smiled. "For a while there, it actually was."

"Yes. I suppose it was."

"I'll see you later, Bedivere."

"Ride safely."

He watched as she sped off, disappearing as she turned a corner. He looked down at his hand, this half-curse, half-blessing. He would give up all of this power if only to be able to see Weiss's eyes without all of that dread behind them.

—

It was nighttime when Weiss finally decided to get out of her room. She had refused lunch and dinner, unable to stomach anything out of disgust for herself and her inability to look her knight in the eye without showing him her fear. Even more disgusting was the fact that she feared him at all. He would go to hell and back for her, and yet a little shadow frightened her out of her skin? What kind of partner was she?

 _Partner?_ she thought. _Right. That's why it hurts so much._

Winter had hit the nail squarely on the head when she said that the reason everything hurt so much was because he was so important to her. If he meant nothing, it wouldn't be so bad. The thought of losing him wouldn't be so painful. But the fact that they were so close made every little thing so much worse than it actually was.

 _Is it because I love you?_

She left her room, still in her nightgown. She hadn't changed all day. Even her hair had been left free-flowing. At this hour, mostly everyone was asleep, particularly the adults. Winter liked to be up before the sun so that she could get some training in by herself, also taking care of business with her military detachment. Qrow mostly passed out in random places around the dorms. Blake's parents always went to bed earlier than everyone else. Like Winter, they, too, were up early, but mainly so they could take care of business with their faction of the White Fang.

She passed by the living room, spotting Yang sitting on one of the armchairs. She had her eyes closed, but from the way she was seated, she had to be awake. It wasn't like her to be up this late, and definitely not like her to be _this_ pensive. Weiss was walking by when Yang opened her eyes.

"Oh," she said, standing up.

"Yang, you don't have to stand for my sake," Weiss said.

"You're still in your nightgown. You haven't left your room at all?"

She shook her head.

"Hey. Talk to me."

Weiss looked down. She was going to brush her off, saying it was nothing, but then the tears began to fall.

"C'mon, let's go talk in my room."

She nodded, following Yang to her bedroom. They took a seat on the bed together.

"Is it Bedivere?" Yang asked.

Weiss nodded. "It's just," she sniffled. "I can't...I can't help but be scared of him. When that, that _thing_ came out of him, I could see its true form, probably because of the whole Connection Semblance thing he's got with me. And, I swear, Yang, if you could've seen it..."

Yang put an arm around her, pulling her head close. "And lemme guess, he sees the fear in your eyes."

"I try not to let him see it! But, I just, I can't help it. The moment I see his face, all I can see is that Wraith all over again. And...I know that's what he can't stand the most, the fear I show him whenever I look into his eyes. That's why..."

"That's why you didn't leave your room all day."

She nodded. "But I guess that doesn't make any difference since he can feel what I'm feeling anyway, huh?"

"Look..." she trailed off, unable to figure out what else to say. This was something Weiss needed to take care of herself. There was nothing in the world Yang could do for her other than stay with her like this to let her know that she didn't stand alone.

The same way she didn't want Bedivere to stand alone.

"Honestly," Yang managed. "I dunno what to do."

"Me neither," Weiss sobbed. "I wish I could get rid of my fear of that thing. Or at least be able to hide it somehow. But even then it's already too late. He already knows how I feel about all this and nothing's gonna change that."

"Why not just stomach it?"

Weiss looked over at her.

"I say fuck that dark thing and just go for it. Tell him you love him."

She quickly reddened and pulled away from her. "W-What?"

"I mean, you _do_ don't you?"

"Well..."

"There you have it. Nothing beats the power of love, right?"

She nodded, sniffling.

"That Wraith shit ain't got nothin' on Weiss Schnee, our very own Snow Angel."

She chuckled. "Thanks, Yang."

"I'm being serious. I think you should go right up to him. And even if you feel the sudden dread, just, take his hand in yours and don't let go."

"You make it sound so easy."

"Hell, you could even grab him by the face and plant a big, fat, wet one on him."

"I'm _not_ going to do that!"

"Hey, it was an idea."

"Yeah, not one _I_ would ever do!"

"You're just not adventurous enough."

"Yang!"

"Yes, Weiss?"

"Ugh!"

Yang let out a chuckle. "Feeling better?"

Weiss sighed, managing a small smile. "A little, I guess. I just, I feel like such a failure. I convinced myself I was strong and that I could stand on my own. Instead, I can't even face the guy I have feelings for, the guy who would go through hell and back for me. And I can't even stomach a little shadow for him."

"Well, in your defense, that thing was pretty horrific. It did some pretty nasty stuff to the townspeople. And to all of us."

"Castle Version 2.0."

"Exactly. Hell, it was more like Version 9000.1."

They both sighed together.

"Did I ever tell you what I went through in there?" Weiss said.

"No, I don't think you did," Yang said.

"I had the perfect life. With him. I took over the company, changed everything, made the world a better place, restored my family's name, everything. We even had kids together. Four of them. Two boys, two girls."

"That sounds like the total opposite of what we went through."

"Right?"

"Well, I mean, the Labyrinth does take our subconscious desires and creates alternate realities based on them. So, yeah."

"What was yours?"

Yang paused for a moment, ultimately deciding not to tell her about the tryst between her and Bedivere. Weiss had enough to think about. She didn't need an extra burden.

"Loneliness," Yang said.

Weiss looked at her.

"The rest of you have each other. I got reminded that I don't have anyone."

"What do you mean?"

"You know, how you have Bedivere, Nora and Ren have each other, all you guys."

"Yang..."

"No, it's okay. I mean, I know where I belong in the world."

Weiss wrapped her arms around her. "But alone is not where you belong."

Yang nodded, looking down at the ground as she recalled this exact conversation between her and Bedivere. Both of them had made a promise not to let the other go alone.

"Just remember that you're never alone," Weiss said. "At the very least, you've got me. And heck, you've got your sister. That must count for something, right?"

Yang chuckled. "Yeah. Ruby counts."

They shared a giggle.

"I'm gonna head back," Weiss said, standing up and giving Yang another hug. "I don't wanna keep you up."

"Remember what I told you, 'kay?" Yang said, putting a hand on her shoulder.

Weiss nodded.

"You're strong."

"I'm strong."

"Damn right you are, girl. Go grab him by the balls and show him who's boss!"

Weiss gave her a dry look.

"I mean, you could always grab another body part instead."

"Yang!"

She laughed. "Good night, Weiss."

"Night."

Weiss left Yang's room, heading to her own. She stopped in the middle of the hallway, taking a deep breath before letting it out slowly. She could feel his presence. He was somewhere in the building, but she couldn't pinpoint where. All she knew was that he was close by.

 _Keep it together, Weiss,_ she thought, continuing down the corridor.

Just as she passed by the opening that led to the living room, she stopped in her tracks. She didn't look, but he had just walked by her. She knew it was him. That heavy weight pressing down on her was unmistakable. She wanted to turn around to see him again, but she knew she wouldn't be able to show him her eyes without that fear behind them. That was not what she wanted him to see.

She balled her fists, gritting her teeth to try and muster up the courage. She built up just enough to turn around and face him, but he was looking in the other direction. In less than a second, she was overcome with that terror again and she turned back around, closing her eyes and squeezing tears out.

Simultaneously, Bedivere had also been trying to face her, failing just as she did. The instant after she had turned back away from him, he turned to face her, but couldn't bear to see her in that state anymore and also turned away from her. Unbeknownst to one another, they both fought desperately to try and reach out to the other, but neither could garner up the means. In silence, both continued in opposite directions to their rooms, both pushing out tears as the distance between them continued to grow and grow.

Yang had been leaning back against the wall next to her open door the entire time, listening to that silent interaction. Her heart broke for two of the most important people in her life. She, too, found herself crying with them.


	37. Chapter XXXVII

CHAPTER XXXVII

 _To Bear the Cross_

Bedivere tossed and turned. This was going to be another sleepless night, another one plagued with all of those horrible visions, visions he could not rid himself of. He stared up at the ceiling for some time, eventually bringing up his arm to look at the markings of the Nexus embedded into his flesh. Rather, this was not his flesh, but flesh born of pure magic, which had given him a replacement for the arm he had lost so long ago.

He could feel it inside this arm, the physical weight of his sin. No, it went much deeper than the Nexus. It drove all the way down to his very essence. The sin was part of who he was. He was the sin. The sin was him. There was nothing anyone could do to alleviate this pressure. He could only sit and bear it as it tore through him every single waking moment.

 _I will break her!_

The words jarred him enough to almost fall out of bed. He squeezed his eyes shut. The mere thought of Weiss being corrupted to the core was what filled his heart with so much dread. It was the main reason he avoided her so much. That she was so terrified of that vision of the Wraith was more of a blessing, really. He was the greatest hazard to her right now. And it wasn't her physical health that he feared for. It was her very soul.

There was a knocking at his door. He quickly dried his eyes, stopping his sobbing.

Another knock.

"I apologize," he said, his voice breaking. He cleared his throat. "I am on my way."

He stood before the door to compose himself. Once he was satisfied, he slid it open. Yang forced her way in. He had no time to stop her.

"Yang, what on earth?" he said, shutting the door behind him and locking it. "What are you doing here?"

"What?" she said. "Do I make you nervous barging into your room like this wearing only my pajamas?"

"Yes. It does."

"Deal with it." She took a seat at a small table across the room from his bed. She let out a heavy sigh. She gestured for him to sit and he hesitated before joining her at the table.

"Can we talk?" she said.

"As long as it is mere talk this time," he said.

She rolled her eyes. "You owe me a story. Your story. Especially about that Wraith."

He flinched. She noticed.

"I wanna know what it is about this stupid thing that makes you wake up some nights in a cold sweat. Like right now."

He stood up and walked over to a cabinet.

"I wanna know what the hell it is that's scaring the fuck out of Weiss. Because I've known her. She does _not_ scare easily. What did she see that the rest of us can't?"

He pulled out a bottle and two glasses, setting the glasses on the table and pouring a drink for both of them. He set the bottle down and retook his seat.

"What is it, Bedivere?"

He took a swig from his glass. The otherwise exquisite taste of this particular bottle of brandy was now like fire in his mouth.

"I already told you a long time ago that whatever you can't share with her you can share with me. Although, that's probably what got us into this mess to begin with."

He stood up, walking around with his glass, taking intermittent sips.

"I mean, c'mon, could it really be that bad? Does it have something to do with your real past? Like, did you accidentally kill the king—"

She gasped as he slammed his free hand onto the table, spilling some of her drink and knocking the bottle over. She looked up at him. His eyes were closed. After several seconds, he set his drink down and walked over to the window, staring outside at the moon, which reflected his broken state.

"You wish to hear my story?" he finally spoke.

She didn't answer.

"I am Sir Bedivere, a peasant boy who was taken into the temple and ultimately became a priest before being knighted as the first Knight Templar. I fought alongside my king and my fellow knights. We bled together, slaughtered together, suffered together, so that we might realize our vision of a united Albion, of a united Frankish Kingdom, a peaceful Persia, and trade routes extending the full breadth of Ecumene all the way to the Empire of the Sun.

"And we fulfilled that dream. And then Arthur abdicated the throne and granted power to the Senate, the House of Commons, and to the people. And then they plotted his assassination. These people, men and women Arthur trusted with his life and his kingdom, arranged for his murder. But that's not the worst of it. The worst part is that I fled. I ran from it all."

"Bedivere, we all run sometimes," Yang said.

"You are correct. But when _you_ flee, does the consequence involve the corruption of everything you know?"

"Corruption?"

"You remember what you went through after the Wraith's emergence, correct? Also what you went through in that castle so long ago?"

She nodded.

"Imagine that, but instead of a single castle, or a single city, it takes over a group of cities. Whole swaths of land. An entire continent. All of the globe that you know."

"What...?"

"During our adventures, those of us most loyal to Arthur ventured into the World of Shadow in order to locate and obtain our Wraith halves, our counterparts that dwelled in the World of Shadow. Obtaining them would greatly increase our powers. Of the seven of us, only I did not fully assimilate with my Wraith. The rest did. Willingly. I chose not to do so because to give in to your Darkness is to shed what makes you human. I was not willing to make that sacrifice for a mere increase in magical potential.

"And when this arm, this Nexus, found me, I no longer had any need for my Wraith. So I let it go. I did not cultivate a relationship with it as my fellow Wraith-Knights had. And when my king died, I ran away. Into the depths of my own mind, I sealed myself up from the world. And in the void I left behind, the Wraith emerged. All of the guilt and sorrow and despair that I had left behind in my body, it absorbed. All of that combined with the Nexus in my arm amplified this effect by untold magnitudes. When I regained consciousness, the entire world had been plunged into a never-ending nightmare.

"I sealed up my Wraith after that. It took an entire decade to create all seven hundred and seventy-seven magical barriers in order to shut it out from the world. I had it contained for five hundred years, in the hopes that it would never again emerge and bring about a calamity so horrible."

He balled his fists.

"But, over everything else, the one thing I fear more than anything is that he will fulfill his vow."

"What are you talking about?" Yang said.

"The last thing my Wraith said before Caliburn's light forced him to slumber, was a vow, a vow that he would take the most important thing to me and corrupt her until all that remained of her light was irreversible, perfect darkness."

"Weiss," Yang said.

He nodded, taking a seat on his bed, letting his head hang. "I cannot control it anymore. The seals have been broken. At any moment, it could reemerge. And you would all be in danger again. I have tried leaving, but he won't allow me to. The instant I came upon the edge of Mistral, I felt him stir, threatening to take over my body again, his way of saying I wasn't allowed to leave."

"If this thing is so powerful, why doesn't it just outright take you over? Like right now?"

"The sun cannot be forced to set any more than it can be forced to rise."

"The hell does that mean?"

"It means it will happen eventually. It is only a matter of time."

"Like I said, what's stopping it from taking you over right this second?"

"I don't know. And that's what frightens me. And to be honest, I think all of this, everything that has happened, has been part of its plan all along, from you and I growing closer together to instilling terror in Weiss by showing itself to her, all of this was intended to create distance between me and her."

She thought about it. It was true that they were at its mercy when the Wraith first emerged. And the fact that it specifically threatened Weiss was quite disconcerting, but that it did not strike at her immediately or directly was more than cause for alarm. Just what did it have planned for them all?

"Why don't you tell her any of this?" Yang asked.

"This is my cross to bear," Bedivere said. "No one else's. Especially not hers."

She got up from her chair, dragging it along to set it in front of him before taking a seat on it again.

"What are you...?"

She took his hands in hers.

"Yang..."

"Don't worry," she sniffled. "I'm not gonna try and make out with you. It's just, sometimes, the simplest things are the best things. And when you've got such a heavy burden on your shoulders, human touch goes a long way."

She was right. As Yang's hands enveloped his, it felt comforting, like part of the burden was being lifted from his shoulders. But even then, nothing could ever erase his sin. With no more words to exchange between them, Yang left the room.

"Yang?"

She turned around to face Ruby, who rapidly approached her.

"What were you doing in his room?" the younger one whispered frantically.

"Nothing," Yang said, trying to hide her face from her.

"Nothing? And why are you always spending so much time with him? You know how Weiss feels about that! And...are you crying?"

She didn't answer.

"Wha? Why are you...?" After a moment, she turned and barged into Bedivere's room.

"R-Ruby! No!" Yang said, unable to stop her little sister.

Ruby stormed right up to Bedivere's bed. He was lying down, facing the other way.

"Why did you make my sister cry?" she demanded.

He didn't answer.

"I know you're not sleeping! Why is my sister crying? What did you do to her?"

"Ruby, he didn't do anything," Yang said.

"The heck he didn't!" She found herself sniffling.

"C'mon, let's go. It's none of our business."

"None of our business? It _is_ our business!" She sobbed. "It's _been_ our business! You don't think we've all thought about that day? Huh? How that, that, _thing_ that came out of you screwed with our minds? And how _everything_ has changed between you and Weiss?"

"Ruby," Yang said, trying to get her sister to leave with her.

"No!" Ruby said, shaking her off. "I don't know what you're going through, Bedivere, but you should at least understand that you're not the only one going through crap! We _all_ are! I watched..." Her sobbing turned into crying. "...I watched as my sister, my friends, family, everyone, was taken from me. Nora, Ren, everybody else went through something similar. I don't know what the heck you went through, but..."

Ruby turned and ran into her sister, burying her head in her chest. Yang wrapped her arms around her.

"I'm sorry," Ruby said. "I d-didn't mean to yell at you. I know you've gone through more than all of us, but it's just...so hard. And seeing you and Weiss fall apart like this... You two were our strongest, you know? If you can get taken down, then what chance do the rest of us have?"

Yang leaned her head on Ruby's, stroking her hair as she gently rocked her side to side. "C'mon," she said, leading her out of the room. "Let's let him rest."

As Yang shut the door, she said one last thing to him.

"Don't be so hard on yourself. You deserve to be saved, too."

Bedivere pulled his legs in closer.

He did not deserve salvation.

He did not deserve Weiss.

—

Weiss looked around at dozens of unfamiliar faces in the Academy cafeteria. Breakfast today wasn't at the dorms, but at the common area, which was now fully staffed.

 _Oh, right,_ she thought. _School is starting soon._

But these men and women weren't students. Some wore Atlas military uniforms. Winter's detachment. And others were clearly Huntsmen and Huntresses.

"What's going on here?" she said to herself.

"Something big, apparently," Yang said as she stood next to her. "I asked Uncle Qrow about it, but he had to leave before he could tell me anything."

Weiss spotted Winter, who was meeting with a group of her officers in the back of the mess hall.

"I don't think we'll be able to eavesdrop," Yang said, pointing out the guards that maintained a sizable buffer zone between their table and the rest of the population. "Also, notice Oscar's missing? And Blake's parents?"

"That means..."

"Yeah. Ozpin. I'm sure they're planning something big."

Weiss turned to her. "I need to ask you something."

Yang flinched. She wondered if Weiss had seen her in Bedivere's room last night.

"I...I was wondering if you could...you know, talk to him?"

"You mean your knight?"

She nodded.

"I already did, actually. Last night."

Weiss was surprised by her candor.

"And I don't think I should be giving you that information second-hand. You need to sit down with him."

"Huh?"

They watched as he entered the cafeteria at the far end. Qrow and Oscar were right behind him with Blake's parents and Hillphire also in tow. They all joined Winter and her officers at the table.

"Not now, I mean," Yang said. "Later. When everything quiets down. You need to really talk to him, Weiss. He has some heavy stuff to share with you. And no matter how horrible it sounds, know that none of it was his fault."

"I _know_ it's not his fault," Weiss said. "But..."

"Tell you what. I'll go with you. If you feel like running, I'll stand right there with you."

Weiss let out a heavy sigh. What if she couldn't do it again? What if she would be overcome by terror again? Even now, despite being across the mess hall from him, she could not help but feel a sense of dread. That Wraith was still in him, that indescribable thing that nearly drove her to madness just from that one glimpse.

"C'mon. Let's get some breakfast in you before you start wasting away."

—

"So, that's the basic gist of things," Qrow said as they finished briefing the youngsters on the new assignment they had. "Oz?"

"Huh?" Oscar said.

"You're not Oz."

"Oh, hang on a sec." He switched consciousnesses. "We believe that our best chances lie with restoring communication between all of the kingdoms. And to do that..."

"We need to retake Beacon," Jaune said.

"Precisely. Now, the Coalition is only in its infancy, but I believe that in time we will even be able to get General Ironwood's cooperation. Winter's detachment is a significant boost to our fighting capabilities, but it's still a mere fraction of what the entire Atlas military is capable of bringing to bear."

"We've also gotten word from Vacuo," Winter began. "They're sending Huntsmen toward Vale as we speak."

"Now, are we sure they're actually gonna go?" Sun asked. "Cuz I know my people. And they like to stay out of other people's business."

"Salem made sure they'd see things our way," Hillphire said.

"What do you mean?" Blake asked.

"She's made her move. Tried to go after their Relic."

"So, that's not just a bedtime story," Ren said.

"Yes, which is why they hit us so hard two weeks ago," Winter said. "Shade was hit at the same time. From what I hear, so was Atlas."

"Is everyone okay back home?" Weiss asked.

"Yes, everyone's fine."

She sighed in relief.

"Wait a minute," Blake said. "You said that they hit us to find the Relics."

"Right," Hillphire said.

"They hit all of the academies. Because they all contain the Relics, right? What about Beacon?"

"That's one of the reasons we need to act quickly," Ozpin said. "Salem has been in control of Beacon for far too long. It's only a matter of time before she finds the Relic."

"Well, we need to go _now_!" Nora said, standing up.

"Hold your ponies," Qrow said. "We still gotta put together our army. Hillphire's tech is almost done, but they've apparently got some new shit up their sleeves."

"New shit?" Yang said.

"Grimm that can produce auras," Winter said. "One of my scouts encountered one not very long ago."

"Grimm with aura?" Ren said. "But how is that possible? They don't have souls."

"Not normally," Ozpin said. "Our enemy is cunning and ruthless. They have managed to combine the Grimm with artificial souls."

"You remember what I said about forbidden science?" Hillphire said. "That's literally what their Dr. Watts has done. I still can't figure out how the heck he did it, but he managed to place an artificial soul into a Grimm."

"From what we can tell," Winter began, "not only do they generate an aura, they are also highly intelligent, as intelligent as any human being, and are also capable of commanding the regular Grimm."

"And I thought that Nuckelavee was scary," Jaune said.

"So, we're looking at an army of super smart, indestructible Grimm?" Ruby said.

"Fortunately, there aren't that many around," Ozpin said. "At least, not according to what we've seen."

"Whatever the technique is," Hillphire began, "it seems to be quite resource-intensive and time-consuming. Still, we cannot delay. The more of these Omega Grimm are out there, the worse it gets for us."

"There's also the possibility," Penny began, "that the souls trapped within the Omega Grimm are separate consciousnesses. In the same way that I was trapped in my own body when I suffered catastrophic damage, they may also be trapped in bodies that aren't their own."

"So they might even be stealing souls," Hollie said.

"It's a possibility," Ozpin said. "We cannot be certain."

"Okay, when are we going?" Sun said.

"Forty-eight hours from now," Hillphire said. "The general plan is as follows: We will be approaching Vale from the east while Vacuo approaches from the west. It seems Salem's forces have begun fortifying there and Miss Glynda was forced to vacate to Vacuo herself. She will be joining their forces to liberate Vale."

"We will attack en masse by air," Bedivere said. "I shall lead the vanguard into the fray."

"You're leading from the front?" Weiss said.

"I always do, don't I?"

"Well, I mean..."

"I will be fine."

No, he wouldn't. He wasn't going to be fine and she knew it. Something would happen and his Wraith would be unleashed again and all hell would break loose. She wanted to run away again, but not out of fear this time. She just wanted the fighting to stop. If the price they were going to pay was this, the possibility of his light being snuffed out by that _thing_ again, she'd rather get out altogether.

"Once again, teams will be arranged according to the usual," Hillphire said. "I will remain on Winter's command ship on standby coordinating everything from above. Teams RWBY and JNPR will move in behind Bedivere and Winter's advance shock troops. Qrow will support the vanguard with Oscar, Sun, and Hollie."

"Wait, we're on a team together?" Hollie said to Qrow, who winked back at her. She smiled and sank in her seat, turning red.

"Oh, my gosh," Ruby said, also sinking into her seat.

"Your uncle and Hollie need to get married already," Nora said to her, making Penny giggle.

"Nora!" Ruby whined. "Don't say that!"

"Oh, that's awesome," Sun said. "Team SHOQ. We all need to use lightning Dust."

"That's the general outline," Hillphire said. "Are there any questions?"

"Just one," Jaune said. "While we're off retaking Beacon, what's gonna happen here?"

"Hillphire's mass-produced power armor isn't as effective as his personal one," Winter began, "but they're effective enough to give a single soldier the strength of a seasoned Huntsman. Another attack like before would be easily taken care of with that additional firepower."

"Any other questions?" Bedivere said.

Weiss had a question. Why did he have to go out and fight? Why couldn't he just stay here with her?

"Very well. Get some rest. All of you. We have a serious mission ahead of us."

—

Bedivere took a swig from his glass as he stared out at the broken moon. The battle for Beacon Academy would soon be at hand and he needed to be at the top of his game. There would be no room for mistakes, not when their enemy was Salem herself.

There was a knock on the door. He didn't have to ask who it was. His Connection to her was unbreakable. He gave no answer at first. He couldn't bear to see her face, not when he was source of so much of her fear.

"Bedivere," Weiss said through the door. "I know you're in there. You haven't left your room since you got in and you're not the type to go jumping out of the window."

"It isn't locked," he said.

She looked over to Yang, who leaned against the wall beside her. She gestured with her head and Weiss opened the door, walking through. He remained standing where he was, staring out at the sky. She stopped several paces behind him. There was silence between the two for several minutes, both of them standing their ground, neither saying a word.

Her whole body shook as the fear began to wash over her again, but she wouldn't run this time. She would stand and fight. Still, she had to struggle with every ounce of strength she had available to her.

She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. She cleared her throat and tried again.

"Bedivere," her voice cracked. "I wanted to talk with you."

"I'm listening," he said.

"That's not...that's not what I mean. I want us to talk. About everything...about the Wraith."

His hand twitched at the word. He shouldn't let this happen. He shouldn't let her get close to him. What if it took control of his body? He couldn't bear to think about being stuck in his own mind, forced to watch himself do terrible things to her.

"I...I want to bear your burden as well," Weiss said.

"You don't know what you're asking," he said.

"Maybe. I find that I'm in over my head a lot. Do you still remember when we first met?"

How could he forget?

"I thought I could save all those people all by myself. I thought I could take on hundreds of Grimm without my team. Instead, I got my butt kicked. And you had to swoop in and save me."

He smiled at the memory. He would give anything to go back to those days, back before his true past returned to him, back when all he had been was a summoned knight created to serve Weiss Schnee.

She walked over to his bed, taking a seat on it. He glanced over at her. Her shoulders were hunched forward, feet crossed, eyes to the ground. Bedivere noticed every detail about her posture and her manner of speech. She was small. Timid, even. Something was missing from her now. And it was his fault.

"I want to share the burden with you, Bedivere," Weiss said. "I don't care if it crushes me. Because you _do_ deserve someone to walk with you when you're surrounded by the darkness."

She could feel his reluctance through the air. She turned to him, fighting against the fear once more. The more time she spent near him like this, the more intense it seemed to get. But that wasn't going to stop her, not this time. She got up off his bed and took him by the hand, the hand which was not his, the hand loaned to him by that Nexus.

Slowly, he turned to face her. The fear was at its highest intensity now and every single fiber of her being screamed at her to run away from him, but she fought through it all. She looked up into his hazel eyes, her own pale blue eyes flooding with tears.

"I refuse," she managed, "to be crushed by that thing any longer. Show it to me, Bedivere."

 _What?_

"What is this _sin_ that you bear?"

That was a word he had never uttered aloud, not to anyone.

"That word," she said, "nothing is heavier than that whenever your Semblance kicks in on reverse. Sometimes that's all I see, in big, bold, capital letters."

He closed his eyes.

"Bedivere, please..."

This was the breaking point for both of them. If he refused to let her in, there would be no turning back. He would be pushing her away forever. As much as this concept terrified her, the mere thought petrified him into inaction. But if he did let her in and what she saw was too much for her to handle, the outcome might be far worse. She might no longer see Bedivere and see only a monster, and that's only if the revelation didn't break her mind.

She wrapped her arms around him, closing her eyes as she rested her head against his chest. This was it. He needed to do this now. She was right. If he could not trust her with this, then there would be no more point in any of it.

"I'm not going to tell you," Bedivere said.

She let out a heavy sigh of submission.

"But I do wish...to show you."

She looked up at him. His face showed hesitance, apprehension, utter fear. More fear than what was in her now. But she would let him see none of her own fear. She had gotten a glimpse of the hollowness behind his eyes. She could prepare herself for this psychic journey.

"Weiss," he whispered. "Are you truly sure about this?"

She led him by the hand to his bed and they took a seat at its edge. "If you really do mean those words that you've told me, then let me bear this burden with you. Let me take your sin upon myself."

He shook his head. "I would never allow you to be tarnished so."

"That's _my_ choice to make, not yours. Let me be who I was destined to be: the one who bears your burdens when _you_ can't go on."

He looked down. She took him by the hand, her fingers interlocking with his. He turned to her, his hazel eyes once again making contact with her pale blues.

"I'm ready, Bedivere," she whispered.

She looked around as her entire world was plunged into a perfect void. This was the same as when his Wraith had first emerged. She stood up from the bed, which was never there to begin with. What in the world was going on? Her heart raced as she closed her eyes, trying desperately to focus on him.

 _Bedivere,_ she thought. _Bedivere, where are you?_

She opened her eyes. The blackness had been replaced by a rusty wasteland, the sky a permanent hue of dark orange and crimson. Thunder intermittently rumbled from the distance, but there was no lightning to generate the noise. There was a presence behind her and she faced it.

Before her was an indescribable thing, a shapeless shape, a nonexistent something, a manifestation of illogic. It had no color. Not that it was black or white because those were colors. This thing simply contained no property to it that could be called a color. What she attempted to gaze upon was something that could not be processed by human minds. Her breathing hastened, her heart about to explode from her chest. Her head throbbed with pain as her mind attempted feebly to process this... _thing_ before her. There was no concept in the cosmic order that could serve as a model for this illogical, incomprehensible phenomenon

She could feel her mind start to break and she had to turn away. Someone was standing beside her. She looked up. It was Bedivere, dressed in his full suit of armor. His face was painted with a look of absolute ferocity. She remembered this face from before. He wore it while he fought Adam, just before the Wraith took him over. But she also remembered it from her dream, the dream of his memory, when he fought alongside his fellow knights, killing their way to their goal.

She opened her mouth to speak his name, but no sounds emerged from her. She tried to look at that formless thing again, but failed. Each time her eyes landed on it, they turned away of their own accord, as if doing their part to preserve the integrity of her mind.

 _That is it,_ Bedivere's voice sounded.

She looked up at him. His lips weren't moving.

 _That is my Wraith, Weiss. That is the true form of the thing which turned this place into what it is now._

She opened her mouth again to respond to him, but as she spoke, she could hear nothing. Whatever was happening to her was also nullifying human speech.

 _I am speaking to you through our thoughts,_ Bedivere said. _You can do the same._

 _W-What?_ she thought.

 _There._

 _But, how?_

 _That's not important. Look around, Weiss. All of this is my doing._

Memories that were not her own flooded her mind. The Wraith was a separate being, but technically also one and same with Bedivere. It was the existence tied to him in the World of Shadow, a parallel plane of his home world where chaotic magic flowed freely across the land. The Wraith was Bedivere. Bedivere was the Wraith. In short, it was the darkness to his light.

She lived through the regret and pain and despair of him discovering that his king was dead, the king called Arthur, who had done so much for him, having helped him bridge the gap between those of magic and those of the mortal world. They had gone through life and death together and when Bedivere discovered of his assassination, his mind closed in on itself. In the void left behind by his mental collapse emerged the Wraith, which absorbed to full degree the totality of the negative emotions Bedivere had abandoned. Overcome, the Wraith itself lost control and caused all of that negativity to become manifested into the real world in a tangible way.

The Labyrinth that Weiss and the others had gone through was an amusement park compared to the hell on earth that this global cataclysm had brought to pass. Every single soul on the planet, all five hundred million of them, was pulled into their own Labyrinths and this collective purgatory became manifested upon the surface of the world. Reality had become unreality and the combined consciousness and subconscious of the entire planet had been formed into a tangible world, this world that Weiss now stood in.

The landscape was littered with unsightly horrors, human beings trapped in straitjackets of their own skin, human beings missing their skin altogether, human beings with torturous devices attached to their bodies. These were but a handful of examples compared to the myriad of unspeakable horrors custom-tailored to each individual soul.

This was hell. She was sure of it.

But the worst part of all this was not the grisly sights she gazed upon. The thing that tore away at her heart was the blame Bedivere took for it all. It was his fault that this happened. It was his refusal to bond with and cultivate his Wraith that allowed it to lose control like that. It was him fleeing that caused the untamed Wraith to emerge in the first place. Upon his shoulders was the weight of hundreds of millions of souls, condemned to live out the rest of eternity in this state of torment.

Weiss fell to her knees from the burden. She had promised to take the weight, but she could not even stand under it. Slowly, she made her way back up to her feet. She felt the sensation to cry, but there were no tears. She was more numb than anything else. This amount of self-loathing and hollowness was insane. She could feel all of it pouring out of him like a vapor, threatening to choke the life out of her.

 _No,_ she thought, fortifying herself. _I am not going to give way._

She turned back to Bedivere. He was no longer standing. He was lying in his bed, curled up into a ball. The world around her returned to normal and she found herself falling to the ground as if a mountain had been dropped on her. Her whole body was trembling, heart rate all over the place. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't see or hear either. The emptiness swallowed her whole.

And then she heard his voice. No, he hadn't said anything. But he was calling out to her. She managed to turn her head to him. He had retreated further in from the edge of the bed, unable to look at her.

She struggled to her feet, tears pouring from her eyes. That experience may have been horrifying, but these tears weren't for herself. They were for him. She made her way to the bed, nearly collapsing several times, but she made it. She climbed upon the mattress, crawling her way to Bedivere.

His back was against the wall, frightened as a small child. He avoided her gaze, whimpering as he trembled. It took every fiber in her body to reach out and touch him. He instinctively recoiled from her, but she would not be deterred. She took him by the hand, lying down on the bed with him. She pulled his head close to her bosom, wrapping her arms around him, shielding him from the world.

Tonight, they would share a bed together, shedding tears in tandem. For a brief moment, they had become one. But now that she bore his sin as well, she could stay one with him. And even as much as it hurt all the way down to the depths of her being, she wouldn't have it any other way.


	38. Chapter XXXVIII

CHAPTER XXXVIII

 _Eintausend Jahre_

Weiss awoke before Bedivere did. She had spent the entire night cradling him, comforting him as they both shed tears together until he ran out of stamina and fell asleep. She had stayed awake even past that point, spending most of the night sorting out in her mind all of those images she had seen. The Wraith's incomprehensibility aside, she could not get over the gargantuan guilt residing within Bedivere's heart. That he was able to function was miraculous. Merely glimpsing it made her want to break down and cry, which she began doing now. She kept herself from sniffling, letting the tears fall silently. She didn't want to wake him up. He needed to rest.

He began to stir, she quickly dried her face, but there was nothing she could do to get rid of the redness. He opened his eyes, gazing into her pale blues with his hazels, which were already wet with tears. Or perhaps he had never stopped weeping, even as he slipped into sleep.

"Weiss," he whispered.

"I'm right here," she whispered back.

He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath and holding it for a moment before releasing it slowly.

"I told you I wasn't going to leave you," she said.

He nodded, moving himself closer to her until his forehead touched hers. "Stay with me a while longer."

"I'll stay with you forever."

Just having her warm touch was enough to still his tumultuous heart. Her hand found his and they interlocked fingers. Even though this hand she now touched was not the one he was born with, through it flowed his blood, his warmth, his spirit.

"Ich bin dein für alle Ewigkeit," she said quietly to him.

He opened his eyes, gazing into her pale blues, which were full of sincerity and love for him.

"I really mean that, too," she said.

He managed a small smile before closing his eyes again. He moved himself, wrapping his arms around her small body as he buried himself into her chest, wetting her nightgown with his tears as he wept silently. She held his head close, resting her own head on his.

"Niemals werde ich dich verlassen," she whispered.

—

"So, this happens tomorrow, huh?" Jaune said as he joined the rest of his team, who were hanging out in the academy's training hall. A number of other Huntsmen and Huntresses were practicing as well.

"It would appear that way," Ren said.

"Penny, you up to speed?"

"Combat ready!" Penny announced, standing up and giving him a salute.

"Me, too!" Nora said, also saluting.

Jaune let out a chuckle. He watched as their guests trained lightly, mostly just to keep their muscles nice and primed for the big operation tomorrow.

"We're taking back Beacon," Nora said, standing next to him.

"And avenging everyone who died there," Ren said, joining them.

"Yeah," Jaune said. He unsheathed Caliburn and looked at it. "It won't bring back the ones we lost, but at the very least, it'll bring us some justice."

"More importantly," Penny began, "it will set back our enemies significantly. The Relics must not fall into Salem's hands."

"Hey," Jaune began, stepping forward and facing his team. "Let's go out on the town. Whaddya guys say?"

"I think that's a good idea," Ren said. "It's best for us to keep our minds clear, just as Bedivere had us do before the defense of Mistral."

"Are we gonna have some ice cream?" Penny asked.

"Ice cream!" Nora said, jumping up and down. "Should we invite Team RWBY? And Oscar? And Hollie? And Sun? And—"

"I was actually gonna suggest just us," Jaune said. "Since, ahem, we _are_ the best team."

The rest of them smiled.

"I agree," Penny said. "As much as I would enjoy hanging out with the others, this excursion will aid us in building team solidarity!"

"Let's go, then," Ren said.

—

The day was spent mostly relaxing and bonding. Tomorrow would bring another critical battle and they had to be in tip-top physical and mental condition. Vigorous training was out of the question. It was mid-afternoon when Bedivere and Weiss finally got out of bed.

"You didn't have to stay with me all day," he said, sitting on the edge of the mattress.

Weiss glanced over at him as she brushed her hair in front of his mirror. "Of course I did," she said. "You know you can't last a day without me."

He smiled. "You're absolutely right about that."

She turned back to the mirror with a smile, continuing to brush her freely-flowing hair. He got up, standing right behind her, just as they had done so long ago when they had first met. She stopped, looking at their reflection. He stood a whole head above her, his posture strong and unbreakable. She was still in her nightgown and he was in shorts. Last night had been so full of craziness that it dawned on her only now that she had spent the night in bed with a shirtless man.

She felt her face redden, but she wasn't ashamed for him to see it. Indeed, she turned around to face him, admiring the lines of his body, the separations between his muscles, those strong arms of a seasoned warrior. She placed her hand on the center of his chest, right over his heart. She closed her eyes, leaning her head against his bare chest, listening to his strong heartbeat.

He enveloped her in his arms, resting his head on top of hers. He, too, closed his eyes. Just being here together made him forget all about that abomination that resided within the center of his soul. At least for a moment, it was just him and her. The rest of the world faded away. He sniffed her hair.

"You need a bath," he said.

"Ugh," she said, smacking him lightly on the abdomen. "Way to ruin the mood."

He snickered as she turned back around to continue brushing her hair. After about half a minute of looking at his smug grin in the mirror, she let out a heavy sigh.

"Now I'm getting self-conscious," she said. "I'm gonna go take a shower."

He chuckled, watching as she stomped out of his room, leaving his door wide open. He grabbed a towel and a change of clothes. Ruby, Blake, and Yang were standing in his doorway when he turned to leave. He was taken aback by the three faces staring at him with narrowed eyes.

"We'd better not find any pregnancy tests in the bathroom later," Blake said.

"What she said," Ruby said.

"You three weren't spying on us all day long, were you?" Bedivere said, reddening.

"Didn't need to," Yang said. "Your door's been shut all day and literally you were the only people missing."

"N-Nothing happened," he said.

"S-S-Stutter much?" Ruby mocked him.

He rolled his eyes before trying to squeeze past them. They formed an impenetrable human wall, each one folding their arms across their chests, each one glaring at him. He felt a sudden shiver run down his spine.

"I do not know what you presume happened between us," he said.

"You know what we're talking about," Blake said, her amber eyes burning holes in his skin.

"You better have worn protection," Ruby added.

"Please," Bedivere said. "I just wish to take a shower."

"Trying to wash away all the evidence?" Yang said.

"What on earth are you all talking about?" he said in frustration.

"You know, the birds and bees and all that," Blake said.

He sighed heavily. "So, am I going to be barricaded in my room for the rest of the day, or may I go and take a shower?"

No one responded. He sighed in surrender as he joined in the silent standoff. Who would give out first?

"Think we should let him go?" Yang said, keeping her eyes on him.

"I dunno," Blake said, also not looking away. "What do you think, Ruby?"

"Hmm," Ruby said. "I mean she did storm out of here pretty mad, don't you think?"

"We should probably teach him a lesson," Yang said, readying her gauntlets.

"Good idea," Blake said, drawing her sword.

"Yeah," Ruby said, deploying her scythe.

Bedivere's eyes went wide as they stepped into his room. This would be a fight for life and limb. There was no way of telling whether he would survive this encounter.

—

Qrow and Winter were having coffee with Ghira and Kali in Haven Academy's front courtyard when an explosion rocked the building. They all stood up to assess the situation when Bedivere smashed through a window mere feet away from them, rolling out onto the grass.

"Bedivere!" Winter shouted. "What in the world? And, where are your clothes?"

"Nothing happened!" he yelled as he evaded another salvo, running off.

"Get back here!" Ruby yelled, taking aim with her rifle. He managed to dodge all of the shots.

"You're not gonna get away with taking advantage of Weiss like that!" Blake said, chasing after him.

"Yeah, that's our Snow Angel you're messing with!" Yang said, following after Blake.

"What?" Winter growled, drawing her sword. "Taking advantage of my sister?"

"You all have the wrong idea!" Bedivere shouted as he leaped over the academy's front gate.

Qrow watched as all four of them chased after Bedivere. He let out a sigh before shaking his head and sipping his coffee.

"And that's why I stay away from women," he said.

"Is that why you do what you're always doing with Winter?" Ghira said with a hearty laugh.

"Hey, hey, that's just professional courtesy between rivals."

"Dear, you know he's interested in even younger women," Kali said to her husband.

"Do you mean Winter's younger sister?" Ghira said.

Qrow spat out his coffee.

"No, hon," Kali said. "Blake's friend. The one with the lovely voice."

Qrow began coughing and he banged on his chest. "If you two don't mind, I'm gonna go get a refill. Of something other than coffee."

—

Weiss closed her eyes as she let the warm water run down her entire body. She hadn't felt so refreshed in far too long. That whole ordeal with the Wraith was simply too much for her. Now that she thought about it, she hadn't bathed since he had woken up from that mini coma. It wasn't surprising that she had an odor.

 _Still he didn't have to be so dumb._

She smiled even as she thought that. If he was capable of joking around again, that means she truly had him back. The emotions began to overcome her and she sat in the shower, pulling her knees into her chest. She was sobbing, but they were no longer tears of sadness or fear. She was genuinely happy. After so much sorrow for the last several weeks, beginning with that accursed castle, she could finally feel happy again.

She looked up at the shower head, feeling the little droplets on her face. The water was already starting to get cold. She had spent much too long in here already and hadn't even used any shampoo or soap. She took her time with both, working the shampoo in as she scrubbed all the built up grime on her skin and hair.

She let out a sigh as the water took it all down the drain. She closed her eyes again, imagining Bedivere in here with her, scrubbing her back as she waited to scrub his. All she wanted was to get closer to him, even closer than the night prior, when she had explored the very depths of his soul. Her face began to redden.

 _Yang's dirty mind is rubbing off on me_ , she thought as she turned off the water and dried herself off, swathing her hair up in a second towel. She wrapped herself up before leaving the showers.

She collided with someone in the hall as she turned a corner.

"My apologies," Bedivere said. "Oh, Weiss!"

She looked up at him. His hair was still dripping, a towel the only thing covering him at the hips. She felt her face warm up again. He, too, reddened. They looked away from each other momentarily.

"I, uh," Weiss stammered.

"Yes," Bedivere said. "I-I shall be heading to my room now as well!"

"Yeah, that. I mean, I'm heading to _my_ room, n-not yours. Just so that's clear."

"Y-Yes, yes, of course!"

They stood in place for a little bit.

"Bye!" she said, hurrying to her room.

Bedivere let out a heavy sigh of relief.

"That tension, though," Ren said as he and the rest of Team JNPR and Team RWBY and Hollie peeked out at them from Sun's room.

"What is with everyone spying on us today?" Bedivere said before marching off to his room.

Ruby, Nora, Penny, and Hollie all shared a giggle.

—

Weiss made sure to put on her nicest dress. There wasn't any special occasion, but this was the final day of rest before their mission tomorrow, which would begin before dawn. She looked at herself in the mirror, straightening up her clothing. The last thing she put on was the locket Bedivere had gotten made for her. She opened it up, admiring the photograph of the two of them along with the inscription on the right.

 _Ich bin dein für alle Ewigkeit._

She closed her eyes as she shut the locket and let it hang with the red black opal facing outward. Her entire outfit consisted of deep shades of dark blues along with some lighter icy blues. Her silver and sapphire earrings accentuated the rest of the look. But the black red opal was the one thing that stood out the most, its deep red hue in complete contrast to the rest of her blue outfit. It was sure to catch his attention.

She smiled at herself before equipping Myrtenaster and leaving her room. She ran into Ruby in the halls.

"Whoa," the younger one said. "What in the world are _you_ dressed up for, huh?"

"Ruby, you should already know by now, that I _always_ dress nicely," Weiss said.

"Not _this_ nice. Is Haven holding a formal dance I don't know about?"

"I don't want to tell you."

"Hey! Don't do that! I thought we were best friends!"

"That's not going to get me to tell you."

"Weiss! Don't be mean!"

—

Bedivere looked at himself in the mirror, straightening his outfit, which he had custom ordered a long time ago just in case. Today wasn't a special occasion, but he thought it would be nice to wear it on what might be the last day they would spend in Haven Academy. If they were to succeed at liberating Beacon, that would be their new home base.

This clothing was not all that different from the way he used to dress back when Arthur would throw grand balls for the nobility or to honor a guest from a foreign land. He had given detailed instructions on how to fabricate it from the ground up and the seamstress had done an excellent job at recreating the clothing of the nobility of Albion.

He had chosen blue colors of different shades in honor of the colors worn by mages. Blue denoted wisdom and a calm mind, which were essential when commanding such a powerful force as magic. He also wore white colors, representing purity and virtue. He was going to comb his hair just as always had when attending Arthur's grand parties, but he figured he would leave it the way it was. After all, this was the Bedivere that she had come to know. He wanted her to be comfortable around him.

He left his room, running into Hillphire in the halls, who stopped as he ran by.

"Did I miss the invitation?" Hillphire said.

Bedivere chuckled. "No, there's no grand party or anything," he said.

"Then, what's the occasion?"

"Weiss is the occasion."

"Ahhh, I see. So you're embracing the aristocracy just for her."

"Perhaps."

"Perhaps my butt."

"What about you, blacksmith? Who are you here to visit?"

"Why, all of you, of course!"

"Not the girl in red? Or the girl with the pink bow in her hair? They both are important to you, are they not?"

"Of course they are. In different ways, of course."

"Of course."

"I will be off now. You enjoy whatever it is you are planning with that Snow Angel of yours."

"Snow Angel. That was Jaune's nickname for her, was it not?"

"It's a cute nickname, don't you think?"

"Yes. It is."

—

Weiss walked into the academy's recital hall, where a piano was already rolled into the middle of the stage. There was someone sitting at it, playing a soft melody. She quietly walked over to the pianist, listening to the splendid harmony, which elicited a calm emotion from her. As she came closer, Weiss realized that the pianist was none other than their resident lion Faunus muse. She waited until she finished playing before walking over to greet her.

"Oh, Weiss," Hollie said, turning around. "Were you standing there the whole time?"

"I've only been here for about five minutes," she said. "That was beautiful, by the way."

"Not as beautiful as that dress. Jeez, who are you all dolled up for?"

"No one in particular."

"Uh-huh. That pretty little red locket tells me otherwise."

Weiss reached up and played with it.

"Hey, I hear you like to sing, too," Hollie said.

"A little," Weiss said. "I'm not a rock star like you, though."

She chuckled. "No, but you are quite the concert princess, aren't you?"

"Please don't call me that."

"My bad. I just saw one of the videos of you singing in Atlas recently. That was an awesome performance."

"Thanks."

"But I do like that other song you've sung. Wanna give it a shot? With no audience, of course."

"Yeah, sure."

Hollie began playing the melody to her song, which was a soft, melancholic, but hopeful tune. Weiss began to sing as her part came. She sang toward the piano since they had no other audience. That's what she and Hollie thought, anyway. They did have an audience, a regally dressed knight from a faraway land, complete with white gloves.

 _Some believe in fairy stories_

 _And the ghosts that they can't see_

 _I know that I could do so much_

 _If I could just believe in me_

 _Mirror mirror_

 _I'll tell you something_

 _I think I might change it all_

"Gosh," Hollie said, her hands trembling as the song ended. "I had no idea your voice was so pretty."

Weiss smiled. "I had a good accompaniment."

She chuckled. She was going to say something when she spotted Bedivere ascending the steps to join them on the stage. Weiss turned around, shocked by the splendor in which her knight was dressed. They even matched in color.

"Weiss," he said. "You make that dress look more beautiful than it is."

She smiled coyly, extending a hand to him, which he took and kissed gently. Without saying a word, Hollie grinned as she sat back down on the piano bench to start playing. She watched as Hillphire walked to her from backstage with a chair and cello in hand. They didn't even need to say anything to each other. Music was a language that did not need words to be expressed.

"I somehow knew that such a voice would come from you," Bedivere said.

"You flatter me, sir knight," Weiss replied.

"Not at all. I only speak the truth, my lady." He admired the dark red opal hanging from around her neck as it caught the light from above. "Red is the color of courage."

"Is it?"

"It suits you."

They both listened to the music Hollie and Hillphire began playing together.

"Weiss," Bedivere began, "may I have this dance?"

She smiled before extending a hand. "I would be delighted," she said.

Their waltz perfected the harmony created by Hollie's piano and Hillphire's cello, each movement deliberate and matching the tune step by step. This was their first dance together, and yet it was as though they had always done so. Their very hearts beat as one, each slide of the foot matching those of the other, each twirl and arm movement in perfect synchronization, their emotions in full complement. She was the grace to his strength.

Weiss closed her eyes, trusting in her dance partner to lead every step of their performance. There was no one to watch this beautiful choreography, but it didn't matter. Because they weren't dancing for anyone else. They were dancing for one another, a dance long-overdue.

Weiss spread out her arms like wings as Bedivere lifted her by the waist from behind, carrying her up high before she came back down to earth to him, continuing the waltz, spins, dips, lifts, and all. To anyone watching, this would win more than just a mere dance competition. It would win the hearts of every spectator, enrapturing and transforming them into participants in the dance even from where they sat and watched.

When the musical piece ended, they were face to face, her hands were in his, his hands in hers. No, it was more than just their hands. They held each other's very hearts. She looked up, her pale blue eyes meeting with his hazel eyes. Before she knew it, the emotions had overcome her and she began tearing up. She turned and took three steps away before stopping. She sniffled before wiping the tears away with her thumbs, careful not to smear all of her makeup.

She listened to his gentle footsteps on the hardwood and closed her eyes, reliving every second of their waltz. She wanted to dance with him forever, to hold him in her arms forever. She couldn't wait for that day, when he was hers and she was his, for the rest of eternity.

"You have it all wrong," he said quietly to her, responding to her emotions. "I already am yours for all eternity."

She turned around, looking up at him. "And I am yours."

"I have loved you, Weiss, for a thousand years. And I will continue loving you. For thousands more."

She smiled, leaning closer to him before resting her head on his chest, listening for his heartbeat. She could listen to this strong rhythm for the rest of her life and be fulfilled. She pulled away before looking up at him. They grew closer and closer together until their faces were only inches apart. They stopped as they noticed an audience.

"Oooh, c'mon!" Ruby said quietly as she clenched her fists in front of her chin. "Kiss her already!"

"Well, it's not going to happen now, is it?" Bedivere said sarcastically as he and Weiss turned their faces away from each other.

"Aww!" Ruby whined. "Why not?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Weiss said. "You ruined the mood!"

"Thanks a lot, Ruby," Nora said.

"You killed it," Yang said.

"Stabbed it like they stabbed Caesar," Blake said.

"We waited forever for this," Ren said, "and you messed it all up."

Jaune let out an exasperated sigh.

Ruby watched as everyone left her behind. "Hey!" she yelled. "Why are you all putting the blame on me?"

Weiss chuckled as all of Teams RWBY and JNPR left the recital hall. Penny gave her a wave and she waved back.

"William, Hollie," Bedivere said to the only other two left. "Would you mind playing that piece one more time?"

The two musicians shared a smile.

"For our friends," Hillphire began as he brought up his bow, "we would do anything."

"Damn straight," Hollie said, turning to face the keys.

Weiss held out her hand for Bedivere as they once again let the music sweep them away and dictate their choreography.

"Snow Angel," he said as they danced.

"Hmm?" she replied.

"I was just thinking about that. It was Jaune's nickname for you, wasn't it?"

She smiled. "Do I sense jealousy?"

"Not at all. It's a cute nickname."

She waited for a moment. "But?"

"I just don't think it fits you anymore. You're more than 'cute' now."

"Oh? What would you call me, then?"

He feigned contemplation before finally saying, "Silver Maiden."

She smiled. It had a nice ring to it.

"Snow Angel was cute. I agree with that. But beauty deserves a more beautiful name. And so I have chosen Silver Maiden."

She danced closer to him, laying her head on his chest as they decreased the vigor of their waltz to one of slow contemplation. She closed her eyes, once again placing her full trust in him to lead their movements.

 _Yes,_ she thought. _I would be okay with this forever._


	39. Chapter XXXIX

CHAPTER XXXIX

 _Leuchtfeuer der Hoffnung_

"First teams, on my rear!" Bedivere shouted to his advance guard. They had just carved a path through the thick hordes of Grimm, which were now beginning to congregate in their area. After slashing his way through two dozen Grimm, Bedivere looked back toward the other teams. RWBY and JNPR were making short work of the enemy, as was Team SHOQ.

"We're making good ground," Winter said to him.

"Let's hope it stays this way," Bedivere said, continuing their assault.

The teams fought their way to the gates of Beacon Academy, where Grimm were swarming. Every manner of these beasts seemed to be gathered here, from small and fast groundlings to behemoths along with those that could take flight. Nevertheless, the Coalition pressed onward.

"Weiss, are you all right?" Bedivere said as he met up with Team RWBY during a lull in the fighting.

"I am," she said with a nod. "Are you?"

"So long as I have you near me, I'll be—"

Something in him stirred. He put a hand to his chest and Weiss ran up to him.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"It's nothing," he said as the sensation subsided. That was much too close. "He's gone back under."

"Are you sure?"

He nodded.

"Okay. Let's keep moving."

He watched as she led the way, following after her before he came to a halt, noticing something terribly wrong with her. She stopped as well, as if on cue.

"Is something bothering you?" she asked him, still facing the other way.

What was this dread that was falling upon him?

"Bedivere?"

He didn't answer. He was paralyzed by something looming over them. He watched as she turned around slowly, her face almost seductive in appearance. Once she was fully facing him, he stared into her pale blues for a long time. There was something behind those eyes, something that sent chills down his spine.

"Is something bugging you?" she asked, taking slow steps toward him, playing with her hair as she neared.

"Weiss?" he managed.

"Mm-hmm," she said with a nod. "I'm right here."

"What is wrong with you?"

"What do you mean what's wrong with me? I'm perfectly fine. I'm...exactly as I should be."

He watched in horror as the light around her soul rapidly transformed into pitch black, her body reflecting its state and emitting a shadowy substance that seeped into the air to choke him.

—

Bedivere gasped loudly as he jarred himself awake. He flailed around to try and get that thing off of his neck before it choked him to death, but there was nothing there, nothing choking him but air.

"Bedivere!" Weiss's voice began to fade in. "It's okay! It was only a nightmare!"

He managed to gather up his bearings, slowly looking around at his environment. He was aboard the transport shuttle, which was piggybacking off of Winter's command ship. Weiss was right in front of him, her hands gripping his shoulders, face full of worry. The others were around him as well, ready to run to his aid if necessary.

"Weiss?" he said, his voice cracking.

She nodded before slowly pulling him close, wrapping her arms around his head and shoulders as he embraced her as well, more tightly than she did.

"I-I thought..."

"Shh," she said, stroking his hair. "It's just me. You're safe. It was only a dream."

Even with that knowledge, he couldn't get out his mind the sight of her entire body and soul being enveloped by that unfathomable darkness.

"Hey," Weiss said, taking a seat on the bench next to him as the others relaxed and went back to their own business. "Talk to me."

He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to flush that image out of his mind.

"Are you okay?"

He nodded quickly. It wasn't long before his right hand began to shake uncontrollably. She gently took hold of it and the violent quaking ceased almost as quickly as it had started. He turned to her, his hazel eyes locking with her pale blues.

"Do you wanna talk about it?"

He didn't want to burden her with that knowledge, but after everything, he knew he could trust her. After all, she had gazed upon the true form of the Wraith and she was still standing. That had to count for something.

He took a deep breath. "I—"

"Commander Schnee, we're approaching our designated landing zone," a voice came from beyond the doors to their shuttle.

Bedivere and Weiss looked each other for a moment before following the others through the umbilical and to the bridge, where Winter and Qrow were gearing up for the fight. Hillphire was also equipping his armbands, boots, and belt. The backpack was within reach and he could deploy with them at a moment's notice should that need arise.

"What's going on?" Weiss asked as she and her team approached Winter.

"It looks like we're only fifteen minutes out," her sister said, checking the Dust cartridges in her sword. "I hope you all got enough sleep. Because that's gonna be that last of it until the end of this battle."

"Which might be prolonged," Hillphire said, examining the map. "Look at this."

Winter and Bedivere joined him.

"The Grimm are starting to move against the blockade. They're going to attack the city."

"But that's where our backup from Vacuo are based," Oscar said. "Along with all of Vale's Huntsmen."

"No, it looks like the Grimm going to the base are meant as a distraction. Look."

There was more movement in other, less guarded areas.

"Wait, they're circumventing the defenses?" Weiss said, peeking over at the display.

"This must be those new ones," Qrow said.

"I think we should change our plans temporarily," Bedivere said. "Hillphire, you will continue on with Winter and the main force to Mountain Glenn while Teams RWBY, JNPR, SHOQ, and I will proceed to the city."

"But we sorta need to be on the front lines, don't we?" Jaune asked.

"No, the main army should be able to handle the main battle without us. Three teams of elite Huntsmen and Huntresses should be more than enough to eliminate the Grimm heading to the city and save the civilians." He looked around at the teams, who nodded in agreement.

"You tryin'a make me blush?" Qrow said.

"Will you be fine joining a bunch of kids?" Yang asked him.

"Hey, I gotta look out for you."

Sun noticed Hollie was a little more on edge than usual. "Hey, you okay?" he asked her.

She nodded quickly before letting out a sigh. "I'm just getting performance anxiety," she said.

"No way. A rock star like you? Getting nervous?"

She chuckled before her demeanor became serious again. Blake went over to her.

"We'll be fine," she said to her fellow Faunus. "We've made it out of worse situations. We'll make it through this one."

"Yeah," Hollie said. "I know."

Weiss looked around. Everyone was on edge. It wasn't just Hollie. They were coming back to Beacon. It was going to be full circle. What that would mean exactly was anyone's guess.

—

The Beacon Liberation Campaign had begun. Until today, the Grimm stayed mainly within the confines of the academy, leaving the city mostly alone. This had permitted the gradual evacuation of most of the civilians out of the city to safe havens around the kingdom with some even accepted into Vacuo. The emigration was limited, however.

The capital was densely populated and evacuating its entirety was out of the question. In place of a full scale exodus, a wall had been erected between the city proper and Beacon Academy with a Huntsman base being established along the thoroughfare that connected the school with the rest of Vale. The bulk of the population stayed behind the walls, continuing their lives with some modicum of safety even with the Grimm so close by.

The main force had chosen Mountain Glenn as their landing site because despite still being infested by the Grimm, it was the easiest place from which to mount an assault on Beacon Academy. There were no civilians at risk and they could even exterminate some of the Grimm they came across. The flying Grimm were concentrated all around the region surrounding Beacon and an aerial assault from that direction would be perpetually harassed by Nevermore, Griffon, Lancer, and whatever other kinds of Grimm they had yet to encounter. Fortunately, the giant Dragon Grimm was still petrified and would pose no threat.

The greatest concern, though, was the presence of the Omega Grimm. The designation had been given by Hillphire and the other scientific staff to denote their relationship to the Alpha Grimm. Although they had to ascertain their full capabilities, the theoretical implications alone made the term "Omega" appropriate.

"We are separating from the command ship," Penny said to the teams. She had a direct communication link to all of the necessary hubs. "Liam, do you hear me?"

"Loud and clear, Penny," he said. "Teams RWBY, JNPR, and SHOQ, do you hear me?"

"Reading you, Boss," Qrow said as everyone gave their thumbs up.

"Is Bedivere with you guys?"

"I am," he said into his headset.

"Okay. You're dropping in further than the rest of us. We've picked up Grimm movement in the residential district to the southwest of Beacon Academy. The Huntsmen are based around the river and I've already given them orders to protect the commercial zone while you all handle the residential zone."

"What about my people?" Sun said.

"I've received word that they have made a quick stopover at Patch."

"What?" Ruby gasped.

"Is everybody okay over there?" Yang said.

"Nothing major," Hillphire said. "They've spotted some Grimm on the island, that's all."

"How the hell did they even get there?"

"No idea. Some of them were making their way to Signal."

"It's most likely to keep us busy," Ren said. "Salem saw this coming."

"Without a doubt," Hillphire said. "The citizens of Vale were an insurance policy in case anything like what we're doing now came to pass. And now that we're attacking, her plan has been put into motion. The good thing is we anticipated something like this. We managed to send word to the Huntsmen stationed here and they were able to prep themselves for this exact scenario."

"Damage to the city has been mitigated," Winter's voice sounded in their radios. "And many lives have been saved thanks to their swift action."

"Even still," Bedivere said. "She is attacking civilians. I know that she is not above such action, but as a knight I cannot abide by such malevolence. I will do everything I can to stop this."

"We all will," Weiss added. "Together."

They all looked around at each other.

"Together," Bedivere echoed.

"Okay," Oscar said. "There's no time to make a proper landing, so we're gonna, uh, do what you guys did on your first day at Beacon? I still don't know what that means."

"Oh, this is gonna be fun!" Nora said.

"Can someone fill me in? Cuz Oz is being vague."

"He wants to you get creative with your landing," Yang said with a smirk. "I hope you like flying!"

"Huh? What?"

"It's okay," Ruby said, standing with him. "You've gotten good with your aura, haven't you?"

He nodded with a gulp. "I just don't know how to use it as a parachute."

She chuckled. "You know that thing you do with your cane sword thing? How you throw out bits of your aura?"

"Yeah. Like an aura slash. Like what Qrow can do."

"Exactly. You notice that you get pushed back quite a bit when you do the stronger ones, right?"

He nodded.

"Just keep doing that to control your speed and your flight trajectory."

"B-But I've never even done anything like this before."

Bedivere put a hand on his shoulder and he looked up at the knight.

"Believe in yourself, Oscar," he said. "Because I believe in you. And not just because Ozpin is somewhere in there. I believe in Oscar Pine, the young man standing before me now. It was you who fought through all those Grimm and White Fang attacking Mistral. And it will be you who stands victorious today."

He smiled. "I appreciate that. Thanks."

"We're approaching the drop zone," Penny said.

Without another word, Bedivere headed to the door and opened it as the craft went into a hover. He gave Weiss a glance before smirking.

"I'll see you down below?" he said before placing his hands on his hips and falling backwards out of the transport.

Weiss rolled his eyes. "What a showoff," she sighed.

"You know you liked it," Yang said, grinning.

"And what if I did?" Weiss said as she jumped out after Ren and Nora, who were holding hands as they leapt.

Bedivere spotted a large Grimm as he rapidly approached the ground. From this distance, he could barely make it out, but he was certain he had never seen a Grimm of such size. He had heard of one, but until now they never ventured near the cities.

He brought up his hand to whisper into the Nexus. "Earth Rune, grant me your strength." The brownish colored rune appeared on the back of his hand, awaiting his command. " _Gehärtete Verteidigung_! _Stahl Knöchel_!"

Dark brown light enveloped his body as the rune empowered him, increasing his durability and his offensive power. At the same time, he summoned his armor, which exploded outward onto his body, covering him in that silver steel with gold outline and the blue cape, which fluttered vigorously in the strong winds surrounding him as he rocketed to the earth.

His entire body would be the weapon now. Like a comet falling from heaven, he impacted the monstrous Goliath Grimm, the shockwave from the crash pulverizing its head and killing it instantly. The ground beneath his body cratered, surrounding buildings collapsing with the force of his landing. He looked around. A number of other, smaller Grimm had also been killed by his impact. He looked up. The rest of the teams were nearing him. He spotted Weiss among them. He knew she could handle the landing herself, but he nonetheless leaped from platform to platform until landing upon the highest roof he could find.

He whispered into his Nexus again, calling on a more powerful version of the Earth Rune, the Terra Rune. He reached into its latent power to greatly increase his muscle strength and he went down into a squat, allowing the rune's magic to fill his entire body. As soon as it reached its maximum, he leaped up with great force, enough to destroy the building he stood upon, and rocketed back into the sky toward Weiss.

She spotted him, smiling as she projected a glyph to slow her descent. From his trajectory, she calculated that he was going to miss her, but she conjured another glyph to redirect herself toward him and landed right in his arms.

"I thought you said you'd meet me on the ground," she said, wrapping her arms around his neck as he cradled her body.

"I changed my mind," he said as they began their descent. "I thought it would be nice to land with you in my arms."

She smiled and nuzzled him, forgetting for a moment about the actual landing.

"I think it would be a good idea to generate some glyphs now," he said.

"Crap!" she said as she projected several glyphs in rapid succession, all of which would slow their descent before he landed lightly in the middle of the road.

"Smooth," Yang said, throwing her hair back. "But now y'all are in last place."

"Psh," Weiss said as Bedivere let her down on the ground. "He was here before all of you anyway."

"Sore loser," Blake said.

"Hey!"

"Now, now," Bedivere said, poking Weiss in the side and making her flinch. "We're here as a team, are we not?"

Screaming came from down the road in the direction of Beacon Academy, not far from the quarantine wall. All thirteen broke into a dash to the sound, weapons already hot.

"Teams RWBY and JNPR, with me!" Bedivere yelled. "Team SHOQ, remain on standby outside!"

"Roger!" they all responded.

Bedivere was the first to smash through the front doors of the large apartment complex, looking left and right. Another scream came from down the hallway and he ran.

"JNPR, check the second floor!" Weiss said. "Ruby, with me. Yang and Blake, take the other side of the building."

"Got it," Yang said as she and Blake ran in the opposite direction.

"Just like old times, eh, BFF?" Ruby said with a big smile.

"Ruby, this isn't exactly the time or place!" Weiss said, chasing after Bedivere.

One of the apartments still had people hiding. Bedivere ran into the only door that had been smashed open. There was an Alpha Beowolf sniffing the air. It spotted the children hiding behind the couch, but before it could even move, Bedivere had lopped off its head. His claymore was too large to swing around indoors and he had managed to cut through more than just the Grimm.

"Are you all right?" he asked the two kids. They couldn't have been more than four years of age. As they nodded, cowering in fright, he recalled his own days of knighthood, when this sight was far too common. The wars that had plagued his home world had created too many orphaned children like his own self. Of course, there were no more orphans left in his home. He had made sure of that.

He bit his lower lip as he reached out to the children. He felt fingers interlock with his. He looked to the side. Weiss was standing there.

"I could feel those emotions, you know," she said before letting go and approaching the children. "Hey, you two. C'mon. It's safe."

The children nodded before accepting her hand.

"Okay, let's get them out of here."

"Hallway's clear!" Ruby said as Yang and Blake sounded their own statuses in the team's earpieces.

"Upstairs is clear, too!" Penny replied.

"Okay, let's blow this joint," Jaune said.

Ruby led the trio from the front, keeping her eyes peeled. Her weapon was in gun mode. Her scythe was far too unwieldy to use fully deployed in such a tight space.

"I'm glad we got to those kids in time," Weiss said.

"Yeah," Ruby said. "Good thing your boyfriend's fast!"

Weiss reddened as she growled. "Ruby?" she said as calmly as she could.

"Weiss?" Ruby said, facing her with a grin.

"Shut. Up."

Ruby's giggle was cut short as she spotted something behind them. Bedivere had already sensed something wrong and he was already swinging his enormous claymore. The two children had transformed into monstrous things, Grimm they had never seen before. Weiss only barely escaped injury by those two shape-shifting Grimm as Bedivere cut both in half.

"Crap!" Weiss said.

"W-What were those?" Ruby yelled.

"Hey, are you guys all right?" Yang said as she and Blake came upon them.

"Y-Yeah," Weiss said. "Thanks to Bedivere."

"What the hell were those things?" Blake asked.

Bedivere was already on his radio. "This is Bedivere to Command," he said.

"Command," Hillphire's voice sounded in his earpiece.

"Be advised that we have discovered a new Grimm capable of changing their form into that of humans. We were ambushed by two disguised as children."

"Shapeshifters?"

"That is what I would conclude."

"Copy that. I will inform Winter and the rest of the battle group."

"Disguised as children?" Nora said as Team JNPR joined Team RWBY in the lower levels.

"Yeah," Ruby said. "But, it wasn't like they were actually shape-shifting. It looked like they were shedding their skin. Like the bodies were nothing more than suits."

"Wait," Jaune said, "do you mean that they were wearing those children?"

"Oh, god, I hope not," Nora said.

"We need help out here!" Sun's voice sounded in their headsets.

"On our way!" Blake replied as the entire team broke into sprints to the outside of the building.

There were probably hundreds of Grimm littered all around the streets of all types and sizes, mainly Creeps and Beowolves.

"This is gonna be fun!" Yang said, smashing her gauntlets together.

"Wait a moment," Bedivere said.

Everyone watched as he stood at the front of the group, holding up his right hand and whispering into it.

"Terra Rune," he said. "Grant my allies and myself your blessing." The brown-colored magical rune appeared on the back of his hand and glowed. " _Gehärtete Verteidigung_! _Stahl Knöchel_!"

Each one of his team members was bathed in a brown light and they looked around. Not only were their auras reinforced, their muscles were strengthened as well. The group couldn't help but give each other grins.

"I always knew I liked you," Sun said to Bedivere.

"Does that mean I may touch your tail now?" Bedivere said to him.

A few sighs rose from the group.

"Dude, after this, you can touch me wherever you want," Sun said.

"Can you two save it for after the battle?" Blake all but screamed.

—

"You have a large group of Grimm approaching you from the right flank," Hillphire said to Winter. He watched as a small detachment left her group to deal with the Grimm before returning to the formation.

Winter's main force combined with Mistral's soldiers and the specialized Faunus teams led by the Belladonnas had made quick work of the Mountain Glenn infestation. The mechanized infantry suits Hillphire had developed for the army proved to be more than effective. The new weaponry and armor allowed for new tactics to be developed and executed, including fire team and squad formations, ensuring sectors of fire and full, 360-degree coverage of the battlefield.

"Things are progressing too smoothly," Hillphire said to himself. He picked up his microphone. "Winter, hold for now."

"What's wrong?" she replied.

"Wait for Huntsmen teams to catch up with your main force. I feel like an ambush is coming up."

"You also think we've progressed too quickly, do you?"

"I'm glad to be working under an expert commanding officer."

"Now is not the time for flattery, Hillphire."

"Apologies, ma'am. You have four Huntsmen teams heading toward you, ETA five minutes. I advise sending out drones to scout out the area before advancing."

"Already on it."

—

Teams RWBY, JNPR, SHOQ, and Bedivere managed to wipe out the hordes of Grimm that they had encountered. Their teamwork and tactical training combined with the magical empowerment Bedivere had provided gave them more than the means to destroy their enemy. Even the veteran Huntsmen and Huntresses at the outpost had been impressed.

The greater problem still existed, though. Hillphire had informed them of the existence of the new Grimm capable of disguising themselves. These Skinwalkers, as they had come to be known, did not possess their victims at all in the way that the Geist Grimm were capable of possessing inanimate objects. Instead, these were parasitic Grimm that entered a host, slowly eating away at their insides until completely supplanting them and "wearing" their skin, thus their new name.

"I still can't believe that," Hollie said, covering her mouth with a hand. "I mean, they're literally devoured from the inside out and then they take their place."

"I'm more concerned with how convincingly they acted human," Ren said. "That's going to make it really difficult to identify them from real humans."

"I may be able to do something about that," Penny said, looking over to a group of refugees.

She switched her optics to its waveform scan function. It was a feature Hillphire had recently included in order to determine a person's aura strength and render aid if necessary. By tuning her equipment, she would be able to detect souls as well. She scanned the whole group, spotting three among the crowd who did not possess souls whatsoever.

"I have three potential Skinwalkers among the group," Penny said quietly to her team.

"We need to do this discreetly," Weiss said. "We can't go around causing panic unnecessarily."

The rest of them nodded. They casually went to the refugees, each team positioning themselves near the targets Penny had pointed out. Before long, all three Skinwalkers had noticed themselves being singled out and each one transformed, attacking nearby civilians immediately. Teams RWBY and JNPR were able to suppress their targets at once, but Team SHOQ encountered some trouble.

In the midst of the battle, the Skinwalker had managed to knock out one of the legs of a nearby guard tower. Qrow watched as a young boy failed to clear the way. Hollie, Oscar, and Sun would be able to take care of the Grimm and Qrow instead dashed to save the boy from the falling debris.

 _Not gonna lose you like that, kid,_ he thought as he dashed as fast as his body would move. He tackled the boy out of the way of the falling debris, just barely getting him to safety.

"You okay, son?" he asked the boy, who began crying. "Just my luck."

"Qrow!" a shout came from above as an incoming Grimm was bisected.

Qrow turned around to see Bedivere standing back up, having eliminated an attacking Skinwalker.

"Are you all right?" the knight asked.

"You should probably keep your distance," Qrow said. "If you know what's good for you."

"I've told you once before. I'm already cursed. Nothing you could do could make my situation any worse."

He chuckled. "I just wanna give you a fair warning."

"That is appreciated."

Penny led the way around the Huntsman encampment, scanning for potential Skinwalkers. They had encountered two more, which they had eliminated without much trouble.

"Hey," Oscar said to Hollie. "I think these people could use a little encouragement."

"Y-Yeah," she said.

Oscar noticed her shaking. "Are you gonna be all right?"

She nodded quickly.

"We should probably take a break."

"Yeah, I think that would help."

Team JNPR stayed on guard outside as the other two teams went into the mess hall to grab a quick bite and to rest for a little bit. Bedivere noticed Hollie's unusually agitated state. He walked by her and stopped.

"Hollie, could we speak for a moment?" he said.

"H-Huh?" she said. "Yeah, s-sure."

Bedivere sent a glance to Weiss, who acknowledged it with a slight nod. She, too, had noticed Hollie's demeanor. The knight and the muse headed to an unoccupied corner of the mess hall and took a seat across the table from each other.

"Talk to me," he said.

She sighed heavily, covering her face with both hands before letting them slide up and grasp her thick auburn hair. She stared at the table for some time before letting out another sigh.

"That's two sighs in a row," Bedivere said.

"It's just," she said.

"Too much this time?"

She nodded. "Regular Grimm, I can deal with. White Fang assholes, I can deal with. Fucking parasitic Grimm that infect people and then eat them up from the inside before walking around in their skin? This is a whole new level of horrible."

"I agree."

"I mean, didn't Yang say those kids couldn't be more than four years old?"

He didn't answer.

"That's...I just...I can't..."

"If you need to leave the battlefield, do so."

"No," she sniffled. "I have a job to do. And I'm gonna do it. And besides, Team SHOQ is badass. I ain't gonna break that up and make you join. Cuz then it would be Team BOQS and I don't know if I'm okay with my team being relabeled as a shipping container."

He chuckled and she found herself also chuckling. He held out his hand on the table before whispering something to the Nexus. The Wind Rune, which was pale green in color, appeared on the back of his hand.

"This should give you somewhat of a confidence boost," he said. "It's not as powerful as your Semblance, but it's better than nothing."

She nodded.

" _Lebensatem._ "

The rune began to glow and she could feel her spirits lift somewhat. It wasn't enough to make her forget completely about all that stuff she saw, but enough to get her back in a positive mood so that her Semblance wouldn't bring everyone else down with her.

"I'd better get this over with before I get the jitters again," she said as she stood up, forming her axe into a guitar. Bedivere rejoined Weiss at the table while Hollie took a seat at the front of the mess hall atop a raised platform. Weiss took Bedivere's hand in hers as he sat down beside her. He gave her a quick glance before giving her hand a squeeze.

Hollie went to work again, fixing her mind on the people in all of Vale. This place had a lot more turmoil going on than Mistral did and she'd have to work double time. The Coalition's main army was also approaching Beacon and they could use the morale boost as well. She closed her eyes to clear her thoughts, connecting with everyone in the city. It was much more than she usually extended her Semblance to and she'd probably collapse from the exertion, but she had to do this. If she could make even the slightest difference, she was not going to let the chance pass her by.

Once she had established the link, she pressed a button on her guitar to switch it to acoustic mode. She began plucking. It was a solemn tone, one of gentle reflection, yet with lyrics that moved its listener to action.

 _This will be the day we've waited for_

 _This will be the day we open up the door_

 _I don't wanna hear your absolution_

 _Hope you're ready for a revolution_

 _Welcome to a world of new solutions_

 _Welcome to a world of bloody evolution_

 _In time, your heart will open minds_

 _A story will be told_

 _And victory is in a simple soul_

Her song reached to the edge of Vale, extending beyond all the way out to the island of Patch. She had never projected her Semblance this far before and the exertion took its toll. Her vision blurred as the stool underneath her was suddenly not there anymore. Lights twirled around her, voices shouting muffled words as she fell sideways. Someone had caught her, though, someone with fast enough reflexes and speed to get all the way to her from the crowd.

She looked up, expecting to see their resident knight, but it wasn't him. The eyes of her savior were red in color.

"Qrow?" she said as her vision cleared up.

"You okay?" he asked her.

She reddened as he helped her back up to her feet. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"You almost had a pretty crazy spill there."

"Lucky you were around, then, huh?"

He let out an ironic chuckle. "Lucky, huh?"

She nodded with a smile. "Contrary to popular belief, crows aren't bad luck at all. They're good luck."

"Is that so?"

"Mm-hmm. Especially if they poop on your head."

He gave her an inquisitive look.

"It's true."

"Don't expect me to go pooping on your head, though."

She laughed out loud before grabbing a seat with him back in the crowd. "I'm being serious, though. Do you really believe your Semblance is purely bad luck?"

"I've been around long enough to realize that it is."

"Are you sure, though? Because it could just as easily be random. Like, any given day of the week you could bring around good luck while another day it'll bring crappy luck. I mean, you've spent all that time with us at the dorms and not so much as a stubbed toe happened."

"Yeah, but then look what happened to all of you during the battle for Mistral."

"That would've happened regardless. And honestly...I kinda see that Labyrinth thing as sort of a good thing."

"How do you figure?"

"I mean, we all survived it. And I think we're all stronger because of it. At the very least, we know all of that weight won't crush us. Some of us might have even overcome it altogether."

"That's quite the optimistic view."

"I try and stay as positive as I can. Because of my Semblance."

"I thought all you do is inspire people."

She shook her head. "It only works that way if I stay in a positive mood. But when things start to get to me, like all that stuff about those Skinwalkers, my Semblance starts to become negative. It's something I figured out a long time ago during one time when I tried to lift up people's spirits. I hadn't realized it then, but I figured out real quick that the crappy mood I was in spread to everyone else and everybody suddenly got depressed. Thank goodness it wasn't bad enough to drive them to suicide, though. Like in my Labyrinth."

"But your Semblance only happens when you sing, right?"

"Not necessarily. If I'm in a bad enough mood, like what the Labyrinth put me through, I don't even have to open my mouth to affect those around me. It's not as powerful as when I actually speak, but it still happens."

"It happens when you talk, too?"

She nodded. "To do the morale boosting thing I do, I have to sing. That's just how it works. But if it's in the negative, all I do is talk and the words instantly break morale."

"But that's what you do to your opponents all the time, isn't it?"

"Yes, if I'm in a good mood. I can direct the different effects to specific people, like allies and enemies, if I have a good handle on myself. If not, everybody gets nothing but morale drop."

"Jeez."

"Yeah. You thought yours was bad. At least you can't drive people to suicide completely without any effort and also being unable to stop it."

Qrow looked down at the table. She was right about that. His bad luck charm was pretty random and intermittent. If she was in enough of a bad mood, her Semblance would kick in and never turn off and the sight of all her friends going through despair would only drive her into more despair herself, thus starting a snowball effect whose ultimate end would be the scenario she had experienced in her Labyrinth, the complete mass suicide of everyone around her for miles.

"What if," Hollie began, "what if your Semblance works in the same way?"

"What do you mean?" Qrow said.

"Like, what if you're not bad luck at all? What if it's also your mood that affects your 'fortune'?"

"What, you mean like people around me would get good luck if I'm in a good mood?"

"Yeah."

He chuckled. "That's too good to be true."

"I mean, think about it. All that time you spent with us at Haven Academy. Not one incident."

"Like I said," he said, standing up, "too good to be true."

He walked away from her. What she had said was nothing more than the innocent dreams of a young woman only starting her life, having yet to see the terrors the world had to offer. It was nice to dream, but sooner or later you have to face reality. And the reality is that good luck doesn't exist, especially not for Qrow.

But he could not deny that he, too, wished in his heart that what she had suggested might be true. Naturally, though, he dismissed the idea. It was nothing more than a dream, and dreams had no place in a world full of nightmares.

 _Still,_ he thought as he contemplated the music she had sung. It was more than just her Semblance that touched him every time she sang. Her voice had an angelic quality to it. With every verse, every note that left her lips, he found himself feeling less and less beleaguered by everything he had gone through. It was why he had stopped drinking so heavily lately. It was why he had had coffee with Winter and the Belladonnas the morning before they left Mistral.

 _Good luck, huh?_ he thought as he headed to the exit. _Yeah, good luck with that._

An alarm rang out.

"That's what I thought," he said as he and the entire mess hall cleared out to ready themselves for battle.


	40. Chapter XL

CHAPTER XL

 _Erster Kuss_

"Is that all of them?" Ren said as he killed a Beowolf Grimm.

"Not by a long shot!" Jaune said, engaging another group of Beowolves.

"Nora! Penny! Give us long range cover!"

"I got it!" Nora said, transforming her hammer into grenade mode.

"Affirmative!" Penny said, deploying two Dust cannons from her shoulders.

Team JNPR and RWBY spearheaded the assault on the new horde of Grimm moving toward the base. Despite their age, their performance on the battlefield was comparable to that of the veteran Huntsmen and Huntresses that manned this particular outpost. What no one could figure out, though, was why the Grimm were coming down so hard on this place. Hollie's Semblance should have lifted up everyone's spirits significantly, thus giving them no reason to attack.

"There has to be something drawing them here intentionally," Weiss said, standing back to back with Bedivere.

"It's funny you say that," Hillphire's voice sounded in their headsets.

"What are you thinking, blacksmith?" Bedivere said.

"I'm picking up incredibly bizarre movements from within the city. Something is leading the Grimm around. They aren't attacking and destroying things indiscriminately. In fact, they are even avoiding conflict altogether."

"Sounds like what we've been waiting for," Yang said, punching an Ursa hard enough to cave in its skull.

"Yeah, I wonder what those things are actually capable of," Ruby said.

"Heads up!" Sun said. "We got incoming!"

—

"Winter, what's your status?" Hillphire said. "I've lost visual on you guys."

"We've just entered the campus," Winter said. "But I don't like this. There are not enough Grimm around."

"I see. Hold ground, fortify your positions. I'm suspecting possible Omega in the area."

"I thought so."

"Ghira, can you read me?"

"I hear you, Hillphire," Ghira said. "What do you need?"

"Send two of your teams, fastest, best eyesight and hearing. Something is interfering with our drones. Probably coming from the communication tower."

"Yes, I just saw two of them get taken down by Nevermore. It's like they're specifically targeting our reconnaissance capabilities."

"Yeah. Make sure you give your units the order not to engage, only to scout and fall back if they encounter the enemy."

"I will. And I appreciate your concern for my people."

"They're not just your people, Ghira. They're ours. We're _all_ in this together."

Hillphire looked around at the projector screens. They had slowed their advance toward Beacon Academy. There were way too many unknown factors and they couldn't just go in without knowing everything. Meanwhile, there were continuous scuffles outside of the quarantine zone and the Vale Huntsman base had its hands full. The new Mountain Glenn outpost was also busy with the refugees, all of whom had to be scanned for possible Skinwalker infiltration. The information Penny had given him was crucial to the operation, but given limited equipment and capabilities, they could only manage two checkpoints and one scanner within the camp itself. His own powered armor was the only other piece of equipment capable of distinguishing Skinwalkers from the rest of the population, but he was needed up here.

An unusual reading came from another monitor. There was something in the woods outside of Beacon Academy, watching and stalking Winter's advance guard. He looked at the scan more closely before realizing what it was. The same reading popped up all over the map. There must have been twenty of them.

"All teams, high alert!" Hillphire yelled into his microphone. "I'm picking up Omega all around—"

He nearly fell off his feet as something smashed into the command ship, causing it to tilt to the side before re-stabilizing.

"What was that?" Hillphire demanded.

"The external cameras are showing us nothing," an officer said. "Nothing ever showed up on the radar either."

 _An Omega,_ Hillphire thought before throwing on his backpack and heading to a launch bay, activating his powered armor as he jumped into a modular equipment bay and docked with the high-mobility unit, giving him thrusters that enabled flight. He leaped out of the launch bay before deploying the thrusters and maneuvering to the top of the command ship. There was something already up there, something black and all too human in appearance.

—

"What _is_ that thing?" Ruby said as she and her team faced off with an unknown Grimm, one that stood perfectly upright and appeared more human than not. The only physical traits that gave it away were the characteristic blackness for skin and the white, bony protrusions everywhere.

"That must be the Omega," Blake said. "Can you guys feel it? It's got an aura."

"That's why those Grimm are just standing behind it," Yang said. "Check it out."

She was right. Four Alpha Beowolves and two Ursa Majors were standing right behind it, doing nothing. They seemed to be awaiting its command.

"Grimm that can control other Grimm?" Ruby said. "I'm not liking this one bit."

Weiss turned to the side, where Bedivere had already engaged another Omega all on his own. Teams JNPR and SHOQ had also already engaged in battle with their own respective Omega Grimm. Other Huntsman teams had tried to join in the fray, but miscellaneous Grimm had intercepted them and now the base was in utter chaos as some Grimm attacked the refugees while others attacked the Huntsmen and Huntresses specifically.

Bedivere got into a blade deadlock with his enemy, which was wielding a sword made of bone that it had ejected from its own body. He glanced past the Omega, spotting a group of civilians cornered by approaching Beowolves and Creeps. Bedivere landed a hard hit on the Omega, but it was protected by its aura. That was fine, though. Bedivere only needed a moment to go and save those people.

In the span of about two seconds, Bedivere had eliminated the approaching Grimm before returning to battle against the Omega. For normal people with normal eyesight, that entire event appeared to be nothing more than several rapid flashes of sunlight glinting off of some shiny metal.

—

Hillphire scanned the thing in front of him. There was no doubt about it. This was an Omega Grimm. It contained a soul and projected an aura. He had heard the reports himself, but seeing it in person like this was still mind-boggling. Just how in the world had they managed to trap a soul, whether artificial or not, within a Grimm's body?

"I've been waiting for you," the Grimm spoke.

 _It can talk?_ Hillphire thought. "I no longer fear you and your kind," he said as he strode forward, pointing his transforming axe at the creature.

"Good. Then, you can grant me the battle I seek."

Hillphire watched as a bony protrusion on its shoulder extended outward, growing to be as long as its whole body. It reached up with the opposite arm, breaking off the bone before sharpening it and forming it into a sword-like weapon, dashing forward. Hillphire also rushed in, propelled by the thrusters, which were powered directly by his backpack Dust reactor. He had to sacrifice more powerful weaponry for this capability, but from the looks of it, it appeared he made the correct choice. Mobility was more important for this, not firepower.

They entered into a quick blade clash before getting into a deadlock. Hillphire glanced at the Grimm's bony sword, quickly scanning it. Although it certainly was made of bone, it was strengthened by the Omega's aura and his own sword could not break it. The Omega seemed to laugh before delivering a swing that Hillphire dodged, flying high up into the air before somersaulting and landing lightly several yards away, his descent slowed by his thrusters.

 _This is gonna take some creativity,_ he thought as he activated his forearm-mounted Dust guns.

—

This battle against the Grimm was unlike any they had ever encountered. While it was true that Grimm which had been around for a long time tended to be more intelligent than younger Grimm, this level of intelligence was unheard of. Rather than running to their deaths at the hands of expert Huntsmen and Huntresses, these Grimm attacked with tactical maneuvers, adapting and responding appropriately to Huntsman formations and striking with incredible precision and effectiveness.

Winter found herself face to face with one of the Omega Grimm while a second Omega directed its own Grimm underlings to engage her forces simultaneously. They had already suffered a lot of losses to these new Grimm and their command ability and she had given the order to the entire army to harden up their defenses.

"Hillphire, are you seeing this?" she said into her lapel mic. "Hillphire?"

She glanced back toward the fleet hovering above Mountain Glenn. They were under attack by a large number of aerial Grimm. From what she could tell, the forward operating base they had just established was also dealing with ground-based Grimm.

Winter fought a magnificent battle with the Omega. Its aura gave it the ability to withstand her attacks just as any Huntsman might be able to. Its skill with a sword was also quite formidable, but she was still far too good a fighter to be overcome by such a minor obstacle. At least, it was minor until it began to use Dust attacks on her.

—

"You've got to be kidding me," Hillphire said, reorienting himself as a Dust explosion the Omega had used against him hurled him back several meters. He landed on both feet, one hand touching the metal of the command ship, before rocketing back at the Omega to re-engage.

This fight was no different from fighting against another powerful, well-trained human being, with the exception that, as a Grimm, this thing was far more ruthless, not to mention that its goal was the extinction of the human race.

"Let's see how good you are when hostages are involved," the Omega said with a grin as it hurled two fireballs at each of the command ship's engines.

"No!" Hillphire said, firing his arm Dust guns at some of the fireballs to intercept them. He managed to stop every single one except for two, which impacted and damaged one of the engines at the starboard side of the ship.

That attack had been meant as nothing more than a distraction. When Hillphire turned back to the Omega, it was gone. In its place was a hole in the hull of the command ship. Hillphire boosted forward, leaping into the hole in search of the Omega. He ran through the corridors, gore lining the walls and floor. Hillphire's blood began to boil. This was no different than all those years ago, when the Grimm rampaged through his hometown and destroyed everything.

But now, instead of the fear he had felt as a child, a burning rage began to boil from beneath the surface. He scanned the entire ship, detecting the Grimm's overwhelming presence, and rocketed in that direction. His enemy was in the middle of slaughtering another batch of humans when Hillphire switched his thrusters on overdrive, flying at the Omega with a loud battle cry.

He smashed into the Omega with enough force to punch through the hull and both went tumbling out into the sky. Concrete broke as they landed on the streets of Mountain Glenn. Hillphire's helmet had been destroyed by the crash and he ditched it, exposing his head to the elements. The rest of his armor was still functional and ready for combat.

The Omega had a wild grin plastered on its face. A tongue whipped out as it licked its lips. In contrast, Hillphire's face was painted with angry resolve. After his village was destroyed and his family murdered before his eyes, he had sworn to devote his life to making weapons such as the one he was now wearing, weapons used to protect people from the Grimm. Today, he was going to be the one that stood between this Omega and all of the refugees and Coalition soldiers behind him.

Without a word, Hillphire boosted forward, great sword ready for battle.

—

"These guys are tougher than anything we've ever fought," Jaune said as he and Ren faced off with an Omega. Nora and Penny landed beside them after terminating another nearby group of Grimm.

"I wouldn't say that," Ren said. "I mean, we all fought Bedivere at least once."

"Yeah, especially with that hand to hand crap we did," Nora said. "I still hate him for that."

"And yet you keep asking him to zap you," Jaune said.

"Oh, that's right," Penny said, "your Semblance!"

Nora looked at her before they shared sinister grins.

"Oh, boy," Jaune said. "Here we go."

"Let's do this!"

Meanwhile, Team SHOQ continued to engage their own Omega and its personal guard. Qrow was the one doing most of the fighting with that terrible Grimm while Sun, Hollie, and Oscar provided support against the Grimm it commanded.

"C'mon, asshole," Qrow said, clashing blades with the monster, which had formed its bone into a scythe in mockery of his own. "Let's see what you can do, shit face."

The Grimm launched another Dust attack, but Qrow had already seen it coming and he leaped into the air before projecting a flurry of aura slashes down at it. The attack blasted away at the ground as well as his target. When the dust cleared, the Omega was still standing, but Qrow could tell that the damage had been done and he grinned.

—

Bedivere panted as he ran and ran, as far away from the outpost as he could. He was in the industrial sector now. Still, this was much too close. He needed to get away. He collapsed against a broken wall as his chest became heavy again.

 _No, not now!_

An Alpha Beowolf broke through a nearby doorway and lunged at him. He barely managed to leap over it, driving his sword into its back as he landed. There were four more Alpha Beowolves pursuing him. He ran and hid, pressing himself up against a wall, peeking around the corner when a fireball just barely missed his head. He turned to look down the street, where another Omega had caught sight of him.

 _Damn it, how many of these things are there?_

He ran into another sprint down an alleyway, making his way to the southwest, in the opposite direction of the main battle.

—

Yang delivered a powerful punch at the Omega, sending it flying toward Blake, who sliced off its sword arm. Ruby and Weiss delivered the finishing blow as a team.

"Ready?" Weiss said, projecting a glyph behind Ruby.

"Ready!" Ruby said as the glyph launched her forward at such a high speed that her scythe was able to cut through the Omega's aura, slicing it cleanly in half from its head all the way down.

"Booyah!" Yang said, smashing her fists together.

Blake looked over at the other teams. Penny had just empowered Nora with a phenomenal amount of electrical energy. The latter delivered a devastating blow that rendered the Omega into dust particles, the force of her strike powerful enough to shatter the concrete beneath her target. Team SHOQ had just ended their battle as well, with Qrow and Hollie delivering the final blow together.

"Okay, that's three down," Ruby said as she and Weiss rejoined Blake and Yang. "How many more are there?"

"That's all of them, I think," Yang said.

"No, I specifically remember there being four," Weiss said. "Team RWBY had one, JNPR had another, SHOQ had the third, and Bedivere had the fourth." She looked around. "Bedivere?"

"Hey, has anyone seen Bedivere?" Blake said into her microphone.

"I thought he was with you guys," Sun said.

"Wasn't he fighting one of them by himself?" Ren said.

Weiss ran around the base in search of him. "Bedivere?" she shouted. "Bedivere, where are you?" she said into her microphone.

—

"Did something happen?" Hillphire said into his radio just after driving his sword into the heart of his rival Omega Grimm, whose aura he had completely shattered.

"Report," Winter's voice sounded in everyone's earpieces.

"I've just taken down an Omega that attacked the command ship," Hillphire said. "You?"

"We just took five of them down. City teams?"

"Three down," Qrow said. "But we can't find the knight anywhere."

"Go and search for him, then," Hillphire said. "Before I left the bridge, I spotted a number of unusual movements of Grimm all around the industrial sector of the city. There are likely Omega Grimm all over there."

"How many, though?" Jaune said. "It took each of our teams a half hour just to take one of them down! Not to mention the other Huntsmen couldn't do anything to help us because they kept calling Grimm in from the outside and they were moving like we've never seen them move before."

"I'm aware of their tactical thinking," Winter said. "We've adjusted our own tactics to adapt to theirs."

"The problem is they keep re-adapting to ours," Ren said.

"That just means we have to think on our feet!" Penny chimed in.

"Hey, wait!" Yang called out. "Weiss! Where are you going?"

"Weiss, don't do anything stupid," Winter said. "Weiss? Weiss!"

"I'm going after him!" Weiss's voice finally sounded in their earpieces.

"Damn it," Jaune said. "C'mon, let's go after her!"

"We're gonna stay here at the base," Qrow said. "Sun, go with Team RWBY."

"Are you sure?" Sun said.

"Yeah. I'll be fine here with Oscar and Hollie."

"Okay." There was a pause. "Thanks, man."

"Go take care of that kitty cat of yours."

Once the radio chatter was over, Hillphire re-sheathed his sword before boosting back up to the command ship, which hadn't suffered too much damage. It was still capable of flight at the very least.

—

"Goddammit!" Bedivere said, stumbling through a doorway into an abandoned warehouse. He made it ten steps in before falling on all fours.

 _Why do you keep resisting me? You know all you're doing is making it hurt a lot more than it has to._

"Shut up!"

 _And for what? An extra five minutes being in control?_

"I said shut up!"

 _Oh, poor knight. You don't understand me at all._

"I understand that you want to bring harm to all my friends, to everything I care about."

 _Not at all. We're past all that. And besides, harming them was never my plan. The Labyrinth ensured that they could never be plunged into the deepest pits of despair. They all survived it, did they not?_

"No thanks to you!"

 _You and I are the same, O gallant and virtuous knight. You tested their strength and their fighting prowess. I tested their resolve and their very souls. Do you not see this?_

"Tested them? You tried to break them!"

 _The strongest swords are forged in the hottest fires, Bedivere. What fires are hotter than those of hell itself?_

"That is no reason to subject a person to that kind of mental anguish!"

 _Is that why you did the same to an entire planet?_

Bedivere gasped, remembering the grisly scenery from his home world, that hell that he himself had enabled. He got up from the ground, kneeling as he lost the will to fight.

 _You did it once to me before, Bedivere. Now, again, relinquish your burdens unto me._

A tear fell from his eye as Weiss's face flashed before his vision.

—

"Bedivere!" Weiss shouted into an alleyway. "Where are you?"

"I think we should probably keep it down," Blake said.

"Screw that," Yang said. "He's been ignoring our radio communications."

"Bedivere!" Ruby also joined in calling out for him as they searched each building and alley.

"I'm gonna run a quick search," Penny said. She reached into a pocket and pulled out a fistful of small, orb-like objects. There were maybe a dozen in all.

"What's that?" Ruby asked her.

"Drones," she said. "Powered by gravity Dust."

"Oooh! I wanna see!"

Penny giggled as she threw them into the air. Each one hovered for a bit as they linked up with her and oriented themselves. Once the links were established, they flew in all directions.

"That, is, _awesome_!" Ruby said, jumping up and down.

"Please stand by," Penny said, appearing to stare off into space.

"Whoa," Sun said. "So, is she seeing what all of those things are seeing?"

"I guess so," Ruby said.

"Nothing in the vicinity," Penny said. "Let's continue down the path. There are signs that a battle happened here recently."

In the meantime, Weiss had already left the group without them knowing. She couldn't wait for Penny to sweep every block they came through. She had to follow her instincts instead. Or rather, in this case, that Connection Semblance that he possessed. It usually allowed him to sense her thoughts and whenever she was in trouble, but it also allowed him to pinpoint her location if he concentrated hard enough. Recently, that connection had been going both ways. At first, it was very minor. She was able to feel some of his emotions, sense when he was nearby, but lately it started to get intense.

Even now, as she ran, she could feel his presence growing stronger. But there was something off about him, something that drove urgency into her heart.

—

The Omega Grimm that had been stalking Bedivere finally found him. All three entered the abandoned warehouse, approaching him from behind. He was facing the other way, kneeling. The trio of Omega looked at one another curiously before they all decided to bring up their hands, calling upon the Dust stores within their bodies.

They unleashed a combined attack of fire, lightning, and ice, which exploded into a ball of chaos as it impacted Bedivere.

"You didn't think it would be that easy, did you?" Bedivere said, his usual accent gone.

The three Omegas took a few steps back, shocked that their attack had zero effect on him. He stood up. His surroundings had been destroyed, but he was unscratched. He turned to face them, a grin plastered over his face.

"How?" one of the Omegas said.

"You shouldn't be so concerned over the how so much as you should be concerned about the _what_."

"What?"

"That's right. As in, what's gonna happen next?"

Bedivere vanished with no trace of his movement, no sounds, no kicked up dirt, no air vibrations. He was simply gone. The Omega Grimm looked around before one of them spotted him in the doorway they had come in through. His grin hadn't changed at all.

"It's been a while since I last saw the daylight. Too bad the sun's beginning to set. I wanted to get a tan."

"Who are you?" the first Omega demanded.

"Names have no meaning. You should be more worried about what I am going to do to you next."

He pointed at one of the Omegas, making a slight thrusting motion. Its aura instantly broke and the other two looked at him in shock before turning back to their would-be prey.

"I only have one question for all three of you before we begin," Bedivere said, pushing his hair back. "Do Grimm feel fear?"

—

Weiss panted as she continued running, slashing through a number of Grimm she came across. If they were here, he had to be close by. She could feel his presence growing stronger and stronger. Another Alpha Beowolf attacked her from an alleyway, but she made quick work of it. She stopped running as soon as she came upon a dilapidated warehouse. The scent of death was in the air. That wasn't right, though. The Grimm didn't bleed or rot away. They simply disappeared. What was it she was smelling, then? Or perhaps it wasn't an odor at all, but simply her mind processing what she was picking up as the aroma of death.

Something heavy thudded to the ground. She quickly made her way to a smashed door and walked through. To her right was an Omega Grimm freshly killed. It only now started to dissipate. To the left was another Omega, also recently killed and disappearing.

 _Two Omegas dead just like that?_

She turned her attention to the middle of the room, where an Omega Grimm was suspended in the air by nothing, at least, nothing visible to the naked eye. Below the floating Omega was a man dressed all in black, complete with a flashy black trench coat. He was holding his hand up in the air toward the direction of the suspended Grimm.

She watched as he balled his hand into a fist. The floating Grimm's body began to twist into gruesome shapes and angles. Bones cracked and tissue separated as its limbs and torso continued to warp into impossible positions. Even though this thing was a Grimm, Weiss decided this was an incredibly cruel method of dispatching one. This was compounded by the fact that this particular Grimm, an Omega, possessed a soul.

He let his arm fall, releasing his grip on the Omega, which fell to the ground with a heavy thud before it began to disintegrate. The man standing before her now was no longer Bedivere. He had the same body, the same clothes, the same stature, but this wasn't him.

"I've been awaiting you," the Wraith said, slowly turning around to face her.

It was strange. The first time she had seen this thing emerge, he was covered from head to toe in utter blackness. The fact that she could sense none of that now was more than unsettling.

"You're..." she managed.

"That's correct," he said. His lack of Bedivere's accent was the only thing that let her know that something wasn't right about him.

"The Wraith."

"There's no need for name-calling."

"But that's what you are."

"I suppose. What's in a name, anyway?"

"Where's Bedivere?"

He chuckled. "What are you talking about? I'm right here."

He began walking toward her and she whipped out Myrtenaster, holding it out at him.

"Not another step!" she demanded.

He smirked as he continued approaching her.

"I'm not joking around!" Weiss said.

"I certainly hope you aren't."

He stopped just as the tip of her weapon touched his chest, right over his heart.

"If you're going to do it, do it right. My heart is right here."

She pulled her weapon back, ready to thrust with all of her might, but her arm wouldn't obey her command. She gritted her teeth, torn to pieces by her predicament. She knew that this was not Bedivere, that this was his Wraith, but none of that impenetrable darkness was in him now. The only thing she could sense coming from his soul was purely Bedivere, purely light. But why? Why was this thing, this hollow existence that shouldn't even exist, emitting light instead of dark?

But there was something else about him that started to get under her skin, making it want to crawl right off. She felt an unexplainable attraction to him, not the kind that she shared with Bedivere, but of a purely carnal nature.

"I can see into your heart, you know," he said. "We do share that unbreakable bond."

"Shut up!" she yelled.

"No, you don't actually want me to be silent, do you? You enjoy the sound of my voice."

That was no lie. Even as she stood here with her weapon poised to pierce his heart, she could not stop the trembling, the eagerness to throw herself all over him. A strange tingle vibrated up and down her body.

"You're breathing hard," he said.

"I said shut up!" she said.

"Remember, Weiss. Remember what I taught you. Put all of your weight behind the thrust and pierce your opponent's armor with perfect precision."

She gasped. Those were the exact same words Bedivere had used when training her.

"Surprised? I am he, after all."

She yelled as she went for a thrust straight to his chest with Myrtenaster, but for some reason she stopped short of running him through. Her body was no longer obeying her will. Or perhaps, this _was_ her will, to spare him. Even though she vowed to Bedivere that she would strike down the darkness if it ever came out again, she could not.

The Wraith pushed Myrtenaster away with his finger, slowly closing the gap between them. She found herself paralyzed as he neared her, looking up into those hazel eyes that he shared with her knight. She wanted to turn away, but she couldn't. It was impossible. No, it wasn't impossible. She just didn't want to.

Trembling, she swallowed hard, awaiting what would happen next.

"What do you want?" she whispered.

"What do I want?" he whispered back. "I want _you_ , Weiss. That has never changed. From the moment you brought me into this world, I have always wanted you. My purpose in life itself is to be with you."

She shook her head, shutting her eyes. "You're twisting everything!"

"Why do you think I modified your Labyrinth to be the way it was?"

"Modified?"

"The Labyrinth is not something that I create. It exists in everyone's hearts completely independent of me. All I do is bring it out. With you, it's a little different. Because of the strong bond we share, I am able to influence your Labyrinth. That is why I modified yours to match up with your inner desires while blocking all of your subconscious fears. That way, all you would experience was the good."

"Why would you do that?"

He smiled. "Because you deserve perfect."

Her heart skipped a beat. The manifestation of Bedivere in her perfect world Labyrinth had said exactly that.

"It's because that was no manifestation. That was me, Weiss."

 _No, that couldn't be!_

"Now, what about you?"

She gasped. She knew the answer to his question before he even asked it.

"What is it _you_ want, my Silver Maiden?"

She didn't answer, facing away as he reached up to her face, but when his fingers touched her skin, she found herself turning slowly back to him. She felt tears forming in her eyes, but she wasn't sad. Or scared. Or any of these negative things. She felt calm, at peace, even. But why? This was the dark half to Bedivere's light, his Wraith, everything about him that he had kept suppressed for centuries. And even that made no sense anymore because she could not detect any of that alleged darkness.

Weiss looked up into his eyes, her resistance quickly fading. He seemed to be getting closer to her. No, it wasn't him. She was the one getting closer, slowly inching her way to him.

And then it happened. She closed her eyes as her lips touched his. Her tears instantly dried away as her whole being—body and soul—was filled to the brim with complete ecstasy, utter bliss, and perfect completion. A few seconds ago, she would have questioned these feelings, but not now. This is what she wanted. This is what she had searched for all her life. This was the perfect first kiss—

No, something was wrong here. This is not the way things were supposed to turn out. She had to find him. He was still in there somewhere, crying out to her, screaming his soul out, begging her to stop giving in like this.

But it felt so good.

He pulled away from her and she chased after him, wrapping her arms around his neck as she pulled him back down to her, locking her lips with his again. Her kisses increased in fervor, each touch burning with lightning. She found her hands furiously exploring his face and neck and then his chest before they went to his hips, pulling his body against hers as she continued to kiss him passionately.

She breathed hard as she leaned her forehead against his, unable to control anything she did. Of course, that was a lie. She was in full control. She just didn't want to admit that to herself. She needed something to blame. The Wraith was the perfect scapegoat. Perhaps they had misunderstood that thing all along. Perhaps it wasn't "evil" at all. They had levied every accusation in the book against it, and yet, something about all that just didn't add up.

"Bedivere," she panted. "I want...I want you..."

He smiled as she furiously kissed him again, going so far as to bite his lip. She gasped and backed away, looking at the tiny dot of blood as it got bigger and bigger. She found herself inching forward until she was right up against him again.

"Go ahead," he said with a smile.

Without another thought, she went for it, kissing his lower lip before licking the blood off and resuming their intense physical contact.

—

"Weiss!" Ruby yelled. "Where the heck did you go?"

"Great, now we're searching for _two_ teammates," Nora said.

"Nothing in this area," Penny said, recalling her drones. "Let's keep moving!"

Jaune was going to follow them when he stopped. It wasn't a voice this time that beckoned to him. It was the sword at his side, the one that sat next to his old sword that contained Pyrrha's essence in it. Caliburn was pulsing, calling out to him. His old sword pulsed with it, forming what sounded like a heartbeat.

"What is it?" he said aloud. "What are you guys trying to tell me?"

The pulsing got more and more intense before he finally decided to draw Caliburn. As soon as it was out of its sheath, the pulsing stopped. He held the sword outward. It seemed to pull in a certain direction and his entire body turned until the sword was pointed down the street, where the attraction was strongest.

"Guys!" he yelled. "This way!"

"Huh?" Ren said as they all stopped in their tracks.

"No time to explain! Just follow me!"

—

Weiss had already dropped her coat to the ground, removing his as well. His hands explored her whole body as much as hers explored his. She tilted her head to the side as he placed slow, gentle kisses on her neck. Unable to just sit and take it, she returned his kisses, placing one on his cheek, another further down, and one on his strong jaw.

She whispered his name. One of his hands went to the small of her back while the other went behind her neck, his fingers tickling her hair as they reached all the way up. She opened her eyes. Something really was not right about this. But she didn't want to stop. Even if they were in the middle of a battlefield surrounded by death and decay, she wanted to keep going, all the way this time.

He stopped what he was doing and looked her in the eye, hazels locking with pale blues. She felt the whole world fade away as they shared this space together. Nothing else mattered anymore. It was just him and her. It's what she had always wanted.

He placed a light kiss on her lips. As he backed away, she went after him, placing a soft kiss on his lips as well. He smiled at her, a smile that made her smile back.

"Bedivere," she said softly. "I want you."

He knelt down in front of her and she watched as he put his hands on her hips, pulling her nearer. She closed her eyes as he placed kisses on her dress right over her abdomen. She felt her whole body shiver. His hands were now at her thighs. His gentle touches on her bare skin made her quiver with delight.

And yet, in the back of her mind, she could not get rid of the tiny voice that cried for her to stop because this was all wrong.

Someone barged in through the front door.

"What the? Weiss!"

She opened her eyes. Jaune was standing there.

"Jaune," the Wraith said, standing up to face him. "How nice of you to join us, my old squire."

"I told you before, I'm not _your_ squire!" He hesitated. Caliburn recognized this man as a threat, as the Wraith that he had fought not that long ago, but then, why was Weiss just standing there as he violated her? He looked over at his friend. Her face was red, not out of embarrassment, but out of pure ecstasy.

"Uh, what's happening?" Yang said, standing beside Jaune.

"That's not Bedivere," he said. "But, I can't sense any of the darkness the Wraith makes."

"Why is it everyone keeps accusing me of being 'dark'?" the Wraith said. "As it happens, my complexion is quite fair."

"If you weren't the impostor," Yang said. "I'd high-five you. But we want our friend back."

"Friend? Is that all I am to you now?"

She tried to stop it, but her hand flinched of its own accord.

"What's he saying?" Jaune asked her.

"Nothing," she said. "Give Bedivere back to us."

"As I told Weiss, I'm standing right here," the Wraith said.

"Weiss!" Ruby yelled as she finally caught up with Jaune and Yang. The others remained outside to stand guard. "Hey, what's going on here?"

"That's what we're trying to figure out," Jaune said. "Caliburn's telling me that's the Wraith, but I can't feel any of the darkness."

"Neither can I."

"Be careful," Yang said. "This guy's not what he seems."

"Are you all finished interrupting us?" the Wraith said. "Or was it that you were actually interested in joining?"

"W-What?" Jaune said.

"You're a fucking perv!" Yang said, readying her gauntlets for battle. "Weiss, c'mon, get away from that thing!"

Weiss replied by turning her head slightly to the side, looking at nothing in particular on the ground to the left.

"Weiss? What the hell has gotten into you?"

"You really need to watch how you word things, Yang," the Wraith said.

"You can go to hell!"

"Been there, done that."

His eyes were fixed on one of them, but it was neither Jaune nor Yang. Both looked to Ruby, who seemed to be captivated by his gaze.

"Ruby?" Yang said.

"What's going on?" Jaune demanded. "What are you doing to Ruby?"

"Nothing at all," the Wraith said. "It seems she wants to join us."

The other two watched in shock as Ruby walked toward them, standing in front of the Wraith and looking up into his hazel eyes.

"Yours are silver," he said as he gently placed a hand on her cheek.

"Don't you lay a fucking hand on my sister!" Yang said, dashing at him, but her attack would be in vain. One point of his finger and it was like she ran into an invisible wall of molasses, her feet stuck in place, arms immobile. "W-What?" she said. "I c-can't..."

"Oh, Yang," the Wraith said. "Why do you resist me so much now?"

"F-Fuck you, bastard!"

"Haven't we already gone through that?"

Jaune looked over at Yang and then toward the Wraith. Who finally let his finger down and released Yang from his grip. She stood her ground, gritting her teeth. She was a little ahead of him and so he couldn't see her eyes, but they were probably crimson by now.

"Yang," Jaune said.

"Shut up!" she said.

He was taken aback by her response.

"J-Jaune, I didn't mean..."

 _What do I do?_ Weiss thought as the Wraith took her by the hand before pulling her close. _I shouldn't be doing this, but I don't want to stop..._

There was a tiny voice coming from somewhere.

 _Who is that?_

She couldn't make out whom the voice belonged to, but it was so familiar. Eventually, it became louder and louder and she finally recognized who it was. Her eyes opened wide as she saw the panicked face of her best friend.

"Ruby!" Weiss cried out.

Yang and Jaune looked at each other.

"Yes, she's right here," the Wraith said. "She wanted to join us."

Weiss looked over at Ruby. On the outside she was calm, but that voice she heard in her head was unmistakable. A part of Ruby did not want to have anything to do with this. But the Wraith's allure was powerful.

"What do you think, Weiss?" he said.

No. This was wrong. She was willing to give herself to him, but out of all her friends and family, Ruby was the one whose innocence must not be broken.

Against the strong will burning within her, Weiss grabbed the Wraith's right arm, pulling it close to her chest and clasping it tightly in her hands. His sleeve was torn into pieces from the cuff all the way up to the shoulder by a powerful force emanated by the markings of the Nexus engraved into his arm. Each of the symbols appeared to fly off of his flesh and float around the room, fully animated and seemingly alive. The Wraith shrieked in pain as the light from his arm engulfed the two of them and flooded the entire room, washing out everything.

"Ruby!" Yang cried out as she grabbed her sister by the hand and pulled her away from the light.

Pain ripped through Weiss's body unlike any pain she had ever felt in her life. It was as though every molecule in her body was being pulled in every direction possible, burning at the same time as freezing. Drowning. Crushing. Everything all at once. Was this how it felt to die?

Her aura was shattered, instantly coming back into existence and shattering again, spreading all around her and localizing within her body, then projecting outward and disappearing altogether before re-manifesting.

But she refused to let go.

She could feel him now. Bedivere was fighting his way to the surface, the Light struggling against the Darkness. His screams echoed the Wraith's terrifying wailing. Slowly, she could feel his soul burning back to the surface, gradually displacing the Wraith's presence.

After what felt like an eternity of unimaginable torment, Weiss could finally feel her knight's presence in front of her again. The Wraith was gone and Bedivere had returned. Each of the Nexus's markings slammed back into his arm with great force, sending shockwaves with each strike. Eventually, all of the markings stopped moving, graying out and returning to their dormant states.

Bedivere stumbled away from her, falling back as he tripped over himself. He managed to take a look at Weiss, who was sweating heavily, breathing and heart rate through the roof. She was slumped over, barely able to hold herself up.

But she had to be strong. Her knight was in no shape to support her right now. She had to be the one to hold him up. Would she have what it takes? After what just happened, would she be able to look him in the eye again?

Those doubts vanished the instant she made eye contact with him. She felt tears form in her eyes as she rushed to him, throwing herself all over his trembling body. He turned away from her in shame. What had he done to her? His Wraith had defiled her, seduced her very soul. He had failed her, given in to his own darkness, and tarnished her forever.

 _Stop thinking those things,_ Weiss thought, projecting her words through the ether into his mind. _Just, sit here with me._

 _But I..._

 _Not another word, Bedivere._

He let his own tears fall freely, sobbing, then weeping. She allowed herself to cry quietly with him as she held his head close to her chest, rocking him back and forth. She wanted to tell him that everything would be all right, that the two of them would be okay.

But she couldn't know that for sure. After all, both of them had just been consumed by darkness so beautiful it may as well have been light. She had a taste of what it was like to give in completely, to let go and allow herself to be taken. Nothing either of them could do would erase that.

At this moment, Weiss vowed that no matter what happened, she would not let this drive a wedge between them. Even if meant embracing the darkness with him, she would do all that it took to stay with him forever. Whichever way he was going to fall, she would fall with him.

 _Es ist, weil ich für alle Ewigkeit dein, Sir Bedivere._


	41. Chapter XLI

CHAPTER XLI

 _Verzweifelte Maßnahmen_

The Grimm attacks had finally slowed down and the Coalition forces took the chance to recover. Winter's advance team had made it all the way to Beacon Academy, fortifying a position and setting up a new forward base. The time had come for the final push. They were surrounded by Grimm being so close to the nest, but they had the manpower, resources, and will to continue fighting.

"I just heard from your dad," Qrow said to the girls, who were sitting on a park bench within the base perimeter. "Patch is just fine. A little crowded now with all the refugees, but he's taken care of stuff back home."

"Thank goodness," Yang said. "That's Dad, though. I figured he'd be able to pull it off."

Ruby was happy to hear the news, but quiet.

"You okay, kiddo?" Qrow asked her.

"Huh?" she said. "Oh, yeah. I'm fine."

"Okay. I'm gonna head over to the mess hall. We'll be marching to Beacon soon, so make sure you're ready for that."

"Got it."

Yang watched as he left them before she turned to her sister. Ruby had been distraught since yesterday's encounter with the Wraith. Neither of them went to see Bedivere since then. Only Weiss spent any time with him.

"Yang," Ruby began. "What did you and Bedivere have going on between you two?"

"What do you mean?" Yang said, fidgeting.

"Well, aside from all the innuendo the Wraith kept throwing at you, there was...something else. When I, well, tried to join them, I could feel his feelings, too. Half of him loves and is in love with Weiss. I mean, we all knew that, I guess. But then, I could feel the other half of him also love you."

Yang didn't answer.

"I know that was the Wraith, and part of me wants to believe that he was just messing with my head, but then I think about it, and you two do spend a lot of time together. You always have. Even before all this Wraith business, you've been as close to him as he and Weiss are."

"Ruby, don't worry about it. It's all in the past anyway."

"What's in the past, Yang?"

"Everything. So just give it a rest."

Ruby got up and stood in front of her. "Yang, what did you see in the Labyrinth?"

Yang felt herself go cold.

"Because that's when all of this crap started. You told me that it was a repeat of what you went through in that castle out in the woods, but you lied to me. You've been lying to everyone. What did you see?"

Yang let out a heavy sigh before getting up from the bench and walking away. Ruby followed, intent on getting it out of her.

"I'm not letting you walk away," Ruby said.

"I'm not trying to walk away," Yang said. "There's just too many ears over there."

They stopped in the middle of a clearing beside a tree, whose leaves rustled in the wind. The grass at this park had long since gotten overgrown, with some places brown altogether, but there was one lone tree in the middle that was still quite lively. Even in the midst of a battlefield, life still had the strength to continue. In some ways, humans were completely unnecessary for the world to go on.

Yang sighed before leaning against the tree. "I can't tell anybody about my Labyrinth," she said. "Because in it, Bedivere and I made love. Over and over again."

Ruby's eyes opened wide, her mouth slightly lowering.

"And it wasn't just, like, a one-time thing. I dunno how time works in the Labyrinth, but it was night after night. We'd go out, do our thing, then come nightfall he'd be in bed with me. But it was more than just physical, Ruby. It was...we were really a thing. We weren't just sleeping together. We were...in love."

Ruby looked at the ground. It was no wonder there was so much tension between her and Weiss and Bedivere. This was an incredible burden to be carrying around.

"You haven't heard the best part, though," Yang said. "He was actually there. In my Labyrinth. I mean, it wasn't _him_ him, but his Wraith stuck his brain in my Bedivere's body." She chuckled. " _My_ Bedivere. Right. That doesn't actually exist, but whatever."

"Yang, why didn't you tell me about this?" Ruby said. "I mean, I get why you didn't tell the others, but c'mon, I'm your sister."

"That's exactly why I couldn't tell you. You would've been disgusted with me. And...I just, I dunno. I guess part of me still wanted for you to remain the innocent little sister I've always had."

"Yang..."

"You wanna hear the kicker, Ruby? Even though all that happened in my Labyrinth, did you know that I got _this close_ to doing that in the real world?"

"What do you mean?"

"When we went down to Hillphire's forge, to go get my bike and stuff, we went out. Just me and him. And, my god, Ruby, I was that close to betraying a friendship. Not even an inch away."

Ruby had no idea that her sister had been keeping all this inside for so long. "Yang, I'm not disappointed in you. You know that, right?"

The elder looked over at her.

"I'm proud of you."

Yang scoffed. "You wouldn't have been proud if you saw what I was doing to him the whole time we were at the café."

"But the fact that you stopped yourself. Even if it did go that far, the fact that you were able to draw a line, that makes me proud of you."

Yang grinned ironically, shaking her head as she turned away from her sister. She was going to berate her for her naivety, but when Ruby wrapped her arms around her from the side, Yang no longer had the heart to do it. After all, wasn't this what she was hoping for? That Ruby's innocence would remain unbroken?

"I was scared," Ruby said quietly. "Mostly scared because I didn't know what came over me. Part of me is really attracted to the Wraith. Or maybe to Bedivere. Who knows? But half of me knew it was a bad idea, not just because it's the Wraith, but also because that's Weiss's knight, not mine."

"Wait, you have _four_ guys now?"

"Yang! I'm trying to be serious!"

Yang let out a chuckle before returning Ruby's embrace. "I know. I'm just trying to keep things from getting too heavy. I mean, everything's heavy enough as it is."

Ruby smiled as she leaned on her sister. "Honestly, I dunno if I'm actually attracted to him at all. At least, not in the way you are."

"Ruby!"

She gave her a sinister giggle. "That's what you get."

"Psh."

"But yeah. I mean, he's a cool guy. And he _is_ attractive. But there's nothing between us, you know?"

"It's the Wraith, then. It's screwing with you. With all of us."

"Yeah. I guess so."

"C'mon. Let's head to the mess hall before Nora eats everything again."

—

It was midday when the march to Beacon began. The rest of the Huntsmen and Huntresses remained in the city to mop up remaining Grimm while Teams RWBY, JNPR, SHOQ, and Bedivere headed down the promenade toward Beacon Academy. The CCTS tower was visible from where they were walking, including the Dragon Grimm that now permanently roosted atop it. Even now, despite being petrified, it continued to attract Grimm to the Academy.

Qrow looked over at Hollie, who still had yet to get over her slump. This battle really was starting to take its toll on her. Add to that the trauma heaved onto her shoulders by the Labyrinth and it was only inevitable that she would end up like this.

"Keep your chin up," he said without looking.

She turned to him. He was walking with his hands in his pockets, head held down, his eyes closed. "But you're keeping your chin down," she replied.

"Cuz my neck is stiff. I'm trying out a new position."

She smiled. It was a feeble attempt, but his words brought some light to her heart.

At the very front of the formation was Bedivere, who put significant distance between himself and the others. Weiss marched alongside her team, but it wasn't long before she ran ahead at Yang's urging.

"I thought our pasts sucked," Blake said. "Those two have it the worst out of all of us."

"But at least he's got her, right?" Sun said.

She turned to him and smiled.

"Hey," Weiss said as she caught up to Bedivere, walking in stride with him.

He gave her a quick glance before turning back to the front. His pace quickened, but she kept up. There was nothing he could do short of flying that would prevent her from staying with him.

"You don't have to segregate yourself from everyone, you know," Weiss said.

"It's better if I do," he said.

She let out a heavy sigh. "Does this have something to do with—"

"It has _everything_ to do with my Wraith!"

She was taken aback by his retort. He almost never snapped back at anyone, least of all her.

"I'm sorry, Weiss. I did not mean to—"

"You have every right," she said. "You've been through more than anyone. The weight you carry, I couldn't even begin to imagine bearing it all by myself. And you do it every single day."

He didn't answer. That wasn't what was bothering him. It was what he had done to her with his own hands.

"Bedivere, if you think that yesterday's events were all your fault, you're wrong. It wasn't...it wasn't as though you forced me to. I was the one who initiated contact, remember?"

Of course he remembered. With her own free will, she had reached up to him and kissed him. She was the one who grabbed him by the face and bit his lip, licking off the blood before they proceeded to act like animals.

Weiss shook her head. "Don't think about those things."

The connection between them was strong.

"I don't want you thinking that you defiled me or something. It's...it was just a little shocking, that's all. I mean, that wasn't exactly how I was picturing our first kiss to be. Or our...you know, first time together."

And yet he couldn't get out of his mind the idea that he had soiled her forever.

"Stop it, Bedivere. Just stop." She stood in front of him before taking his hand and putting it to her chest. His face went red as the urge to flee shot all throughout his body. "Do you feel this?"

He closed his eyes, feeling her heart beating strongly in her chest.

"That's right. This heart beats for you just as much as it does for me. I don't care if that was your Wraith yesterday. Because part of it was you, too. I could feel it. Every time we touched, it wasn't just him. It was you, too. Even now, your touch feels the same as it did yesterday. Just...a little more unsure this time."

She put a hand to his face and he opened his eyes, looking into pale blues full of sincerity and resolve.

"I love you, Bedivere," she said quietly before reaching up and placing a kiss on his lips.

They spent a few moments together like this, standing in front of each other, gazing into one another's eyes. The rest of the group had already left them behind, giving them room as they passed by. Except Yang, of course.

"Get 'em!" she had said quietly, making both of them chuckle before following after the group, walking in the center of the road hand in hand.

There was an explosion up ahead, just at the Academy gates. In a flash, everyone had their weapons out and were already running. Bedivere had wrapped his arm around Weiss, carrying her up into the air with him as he leaped ahead of the team to arrive at the battle site first.

There were Grimm everywhere.

"Weiss!" Bedivere said as he looked over at her. She was already grinning at him, a grin that was contagious.

They went into battle together, glyphs and magic attacks flying all over the place along with their very bodies. It was like the waltz they had shared just before leaving Haven Academy, except that this was dance of death and destruction. In minutes, they had laid waste to the entire attacking Grimm horde.

"Excellent timing," Winter said as she joined them.

"Winter!" Weiss said, running to her and throwing her arms over her sister. "Thank goodness you're okay."

"Of course I'm fine. And I see you two have been taking care of each other."

Bedivere gave her a slight nod.

"The enemy has begun their assault," Winter said as the rest of the teams caught up with them. "We've detected a massive horde coming in from the direction of Forever Fall and from the east."

"From the mountains?" Weiss said. "But how are they getting through that terrain?"

"We have no idea. All we know is that they're coming and they're coming in fast and hard."

Hillphire landed next to the group with a small team of other elite warriors in similar powered armor suits.

"Whoa!" Ruby said. "D-Did you just fly in?"

Hillphire retracted his helmet to greet the teams. "I'd love to say 'hi' to everyone," he began, "but things are getting very hairy out there. We were able to secure the area around the tower, but there's a lot of Grimm heading that way. And from what I can tell, several Omega."

"Just how many is 'several'?" Winter asked.

"At least a dozen. And another dozen on standby."

"I see. We'll need to split everyone up. Team JNPR and SHOQ, are you ready for battle?"

"Combat ready!" all of Team JNPR said with mock salutes. Winter couldn't help but chuckle.

"Born ready!" Sun said.

"I'm ready, too," Hollie said.

"Same," Oscar said. "It's actually kinda weird being back here."

"Huh," Qrow said. "You can still hear Ozpin's voice, right?"

"Yeah, he won't shut up sometimes."

Qrow burst into laughter.

"Ozpin's not amused."

He threw a heavy hand on the boy's shoulder. "I don't care! Kid, I love you!"

"Yang," Hillphire said, walking up to her. "I think you're gonna like this."

"Oh, for crying out loud," Yang said. "You said you were gonna do mods and stuff. I didn't think it was gonna take a whole several days."

"I know, and I apologize, but I think the wait was worth it."

He entered a number of commands into his wristband before looking toward the campus. A rider-less yellow and black motorcycle drove to them of its own accord.

"Okay," Sun said. "This really redefines the term 'ghost rider'."

Yang grinned as she sat on the bike. "How many mods did you do?"

"You'll see," Hillphire said.

"Yang," Jaune said, "I don't think this is the time or place to be going for a cruise around campus."

"And don't come cryin' to us if you get a ticket!" Nora said.

Yang reached into the same slot and made a fist. The bike transformed all around her just like last time.

"What?" Ruby yelled. "This is...friggin' _awesome_!"

The rest of the teams stood in awe as she moved around. She pressed a button to retract her helmet.

"I put in a larger Dust reactor and also increased the thruster output potential," Hillphire said. "The gauntlets are also hardened for much more devastating attacks."

"I can't wait," she said before boosting into the air. She reached about fifty meters before falling back down to the ground, crushing the concrete beneath her as she landed.

"Huh. That's a lot higher than I had calculated. Good thing the armor and your aura can handle the landing."

"Heads up!" Winter said as a number of Nevermore Grimm descended on them along with dozens of other Grimm on the ground.

—

The final battle for Beacon Academy had begun. The Grimm had launched a coordinated strike on all of the defensive positions the Coalition had set up, including the Huntsman base and the new outpost at Mountain Glenn. There would be no backup for those defending Beacon now. Teams JNPR and SHOQ had joined Hillphire and Winter at the CCTS tower itself while Team RWBY and Bedivere defended the main courtyard, where hundreds of Grimm poured in endlessly.

The casualty rate for this phase of the battle would be high compared to the preceding battles, during which their enemies had allowed them to advance this far. Even with the armaments Hillphire's forge had developed for them, there simply were far too many Grimm. And with Skinwalker Grimm mixed in with the population, a two-front war was inevitable.

The Omega proved to be far more dangerous than previously anticipated. It wasn't their individual combat prowess that made them such a threat, however. It was their ability to intelligently command and control the Grimm. Their abilities only made them much tougher targets to destroy, assuming the Huntsmen could even get past the swarms of Grimm they commanded.

Bedivere fought harder than anyone present. His hatred and rage could no longer be contained and that translated into absolute ferocity on the battlefield. Team RWBY had never before heard such animalistic battle cries from him. Even Weiss could not believe the fury painted on his face.

"Is that all you have?" he screamed at the hordes of Grimm after slaughtering a hundred of them in less than five minutes. "If this is all you can bring against me, then you have no chance of victory today!"

He threw his right hand high into the air. "Inferno Rune! Cyclone Rune!" Both high-tier versions of the Fire Rune and Wind Rune appeared on his hand, mashed together as a single rune born from two. " _Flammende Hölle_!"

A massive conflagration emerged from the ground, consuming every single Grimm from where he stood all across the vast fields separating Beacon from the wild. The blaze generated by the union of the high-tier Fire and Wind Runes was so hot that even those who were not in direct contact with the flames were set alight just from the heat alone.

"I know there are more of you," Bedivere mumbled to himself as he summoned a Terra Rune to his hand. Something moved from beyond the flames. Three Goliath Grimm, those elephant-sized beasts of darkness, trampled everything in their path, unharmed by the searing hot fires on the ground.

Bedivere vanished. His thoughts pierced the air and Weiss quickly formed a glyph for him to use as a platform. He rocketed at the Goliath in the middle of the pack, pulling his fist back for a powerful strike.

" _Seismische Schockwelle_!"

Bedivere's fist landed on the Goliath's skull with an explosion. The shockwave of the runic attack completely disintegrated that first massive Grimm, causing severe damage to the other two Goliath Grimm to the left and right. Both were knocked over, never to get back up. The force was enough to blow out the fires that had been started by Bedivere's previous attack.

Blake looked over at Yang, who was just as concerned. They could both appreciate the effort and passion Bedivere brought to the table, but they knew that there was something else underneath this. This was a lot of pent up rage that he was letting out now, probably five centuries' worth. This kind of unleashing could only end up badly for all of them, especially with the untold magical power he could wield with that arm.

"What are all of you waiting for?" Bedivere demanded as he stood in the middle of the destruction he had just caused. "Send me every single beast you have! Stop wasting your time with the other defenders and come after me!"

Something rushed at him with intense speed. He recognized this presence. He drew his sword quickly and engaged his archrival, Adam Taurus, who was equally itching to have a rematch.

"I was wondering when I would see you again," Bedivere said.

"Why don't you call out your other self, huh?" Adam said.

"I don't need his power to end you."

"Heh, you're more talkative now than you were before. This makes for a less awkward fight."

"I'm surprised you even enjoy conversation. Then again, you are the charismatic leader of the White Fang. Or I should say 'former leader' of the 'former White Fang'. After all, the entire group you led against us at Mistral are now fighting alongside us. They have awakened from your smooth talk and deception and recognize Salem for the threat she truly is."

"Threat to you and all of your kind, maybe. She's no enemy to the Faunus."

"Then, you are a fool, Adam." He positioned himself for an attack. "Allow me to relieve you of your foolishness."

Adam grinned as he, too, assumed a fighting stance.

Team RWBY watched as they both vanished. Of the four, Blake was the only one who could somewhat keep up with the blurs of color and glints of light. For the other three, it was all nothing more than metallic clanging accompanying fuzzy apparitions and dirt kicking up all over the place.

"We've got company!" Yang said as four warriors approached them from the side.

"I'll take care of that butthead again," Ruby said, deploying her scythe as she locked on to Tyrian.

"Mercury's mine," Yang said.

"I'll handle Emerald," Weiss said. "I think I'm the best equipped out of all of us to handle her stupid mind tricks."

"Yeah, after everything you've been through, I agree."

Blake stared open-mouthed at their fourth opponent. It was none other than her friend, Ilia Amitola.

"Hello, Blake," the chameleon Faunus said.

"I-Ilia!" Blake said.

"It's time to settle things between us. You've betrayed not just the White Fang, but all of the Faunus."

"You're just as lost as Adam! Salem is using all of you!"

"Salem has a reward for those who follow her faithfully," Emerald said.

"And that's why we're siding with the winning team," Mercury said.

"Winning team, huh?" Weiss said with a grin. "Are you sure about that?"

They all looked over to Bedivere, who had just tagged Adam with a powerful blow. His aura was severely weakened.

"Damn it," Ilia said. "All we have to do is kill the Schnee girl and he'll disappear along with her."

"You think it will be that easy?" Bedivere yelled, his voice booming throughout the plains. His hand was held up. "If you think you have what it takes, then stand before me!"

"He's serious," Mercury said.

Adam readied himself for Bedivere's attack. "You're an idiot if you think you can try that move a second time," he muttered. "Whatever. I'll just return your attack to you like before."

"We'll see about that," Weiss said, watching the confrontation along with everyone else.

"Inferno Rune!" Bedivere shouted. The rune appeared on the back of his right hand.

"C'mon, you son of a bitch," Adam said.

"Cyclone Rune!" another shout came from the knight as the rune was superimposed on his right hand. His body was now surrounded with a whirlwind of fire. "Terra Rune! Tsunami Rune!"

A shockwave erupted from his body as the last two elemental high runes appeared on his left hand. He brought both together, aiming the entire volley of runic elemental magic toward his opponent.

"Adam!" he shouted. "Just how much do you think you can handle?"

Adam gritted his teeth as he prepared his Semblance to absorb the amount of destructive force Bedivere was about to throw at him. "Show me what you've got, tin man!"

Bedivere let a grin form on his face as the power in his hands reached a critical level. Bearing a single rune was a stressful enough task even for a mage as powerful as him. Three was the usual limit for any normal mage, but four was doable. Four High Runes, however, was pushing it to the limit.

"Let's see just how strong your Semblance is!" Bedivere yelled. " _Primordial Chaos_!"

The blast column that approached Adam was indescribable. Although the attack had been initiated with the combination of the four elemental runes on Bedivere's hands, the energy wave itself did not resemble anything like fire, wind, lightning, water, ice, or earth. Only the detection equipment Hillphire had installed into Yang's new battle armor was able to determine that this beam was, in fact, composed solely of subatomic particles, particularly neutrons and protons with a small number of antiprotons mixed in. Had Bedivere lost control of such a catastrophic attack, it may very well have unleashed enough power to fracture the planet's crust, but fortunately he had full control over it.

There was no way for Adam to dodge the attack, not that he ever intended to. Nevertheless, he could barely hold his ground as the gargantuan wave of complete destruction was drawn into his sword.

"Jeez!" Yang said. "Bedivere, what the hell are you thinking?"

"Adam, c'mon!" Ilia said. "Send it right back to him!"

He wanted to, of course. That _was_ the plan. But plans change, particularly when you find that your trump card has been completely overwhelmed and was now at the verge of exploding. He struggled to keep his sword sheathed, but both weapon and scabbard continued to vibrate violently, unable to contain the magnificent power of creation itself.

Adam let out a yell as his sword completely disintegrated, exploding with such force as to strip the upper layer of earth away. Team RWBY and Adam's own reinforcements were blown away by the blast.

—

Both Hillphire and Winter stared along with Teams JNPR and SHOQ as a mushroom-shaped cloud appeared in the distance. They all covered their ears as the deafening shockwave of the explosion reached them.

"What the hell is going on over there?" Sun cried out.

—

Weiss dusted herself off as she stood up with the rest of her team. They looked over to their opponents. Ilia was shouldering Adam away. The blast had completely pulverized his aura, shattering numerous bones throughout his body. He was coughing out blood as he joined his team. Dr. Watts was already on the scene with medical equipment to help him recover.

"Should we go after them?" Ruby said.

"No," Blake said. "Look."

They turned to where Bedivere stood. He was facing off with Cinder.

"I was wondering when she would show up," Yang said. "That's the bitch that murdered Pyrrha."

Ruby remembered that night. She had only just arrived at the top of the tower to witness Cinder kill her friend in cold blood.

"Bedivere!" Ruby screamed. "Kick her butt!"

"If it isn't Cinder Fall," Bedivere said.

"If it isn't the Schnee girl's knight in shining armor," she said. "Literally shining armor, I might add."

"Do you like it?"

She grinned. "I could. If it weren't for your really irritating goodie-two-shoes routine."

"Virtue is not something to be scoffed at. It is the code by which all knights live."

"A stupid way to live. You don't get any recognition and you're even treated as a monster for the things you do."

His hand flinched.

"I thought so. You've paid a heavy price for all the good you've done. Why do you keep at it, then?"

"Because it is the right thing to do."

She started laughing. "The right thing to do?" Her face became serious. "No, the right thing to do is to accumulate as much power as you can. Might is everything in this world. Without might, you can protect no one, let alone your own self."

"Is that something you came up with, or are you plagiarizing?"

She chuckled. "You have a sharp tongue, mister handsome knight. Of course, you shouldn't underestimate me. You may have been able to display a large amount of power just now, but something tells me that particular attack was a one-shot deal. Because if you could go around projecting planet-breaking beams like that, you would've done so long ago."

"Rats. You've figured me out. I was hoping you would not notice that I just poured all of my energy into that attack and can now only barely stay standing."

"Hmph."

Cinder vanished and reappeared in the sky before projecting a powerful fiery blast down at him. The inferno matched the firestorm Bedivere had used earlier against the hordes of Grimm, melting the dirt into glass while completely scorching the forest behind where Bedivere stood.

Team RWBY anxiously waited for the flames to clear away. Their knight was nowhere to be found.

"Over there!" Ruby said, pointing to a fresh area that had yet to see the destruction of these battles.

Bedivere was standing in the grass, looking up at Cinder. The other enemies were but a stone's throw away from where he stood, but none of them made a move. Even Tyrian, that fanatical disciple of Salem, had his feet planted firmly in the ground. He wasn't exactly itching to have his tail severed a third time.

"So, then, are we going to continue this forever?" Bedivere said. "Or are you going to come down from up there so we can have a proper fight?"

Cinder floated back down until she was hovering just above the earth, her body surrounded by a blanket of translucent fire that did not burn her clothing or her skin. It was not fire at all, but the outward manifestation of the power that burned within her.

"You've gotten stronger," Bedivere said. "But that does not change the fact that you are nothing more than a False Maiden."

"What was that?" Cinder growled.

Everyone's eyes were wide open.

"Buuuuuuurn," Yang mumbled.

"No, Yang," Weiss said. "I believe the proper term is 'incinderated'."

Yang turned to Weiss. "Weiss, I am _fucking_ proud of you."

Weiss curtseyed.

"You're going to pay for that," Cinder said, balling her fists.

"Why are you so upset?" Bedivere said with a smirk. "Is it not true that you did not gain those powers on your own? You stole them. Therefore, you are a False Maiden."

She snarled before throwing a fireball at him, which he caught and extinguished in his palm. Bedivere drew his claymore, the seven-in-one weapon that Hillphire had crafted for him. To this day it had yet to fail him. He silently petitioned it now to continue to hold together for him.

"What shall it be, False Maiden?" Bedivere said with as smug a grin as he could muster.

Cinder angrily summoned her two swords, forming them out of pure Dust and setting them ablaze. She vanished along with Bedivere, both reappearing as they clashed blades with animalistic ferocity.

"And of course she lets him goad her," Dr. Watts said. "I think it's time for us to leave."

"We're not leaving her behind," Emerald said.

"Then, stay. I don't care. I'm getting myself and my patient out of here."

Of the group, only Emerald and Mercury remained. They were still fresh, more than ready for combat, and they were not going to leave their mistress behind. Cinder was more than just a boss to them. She was their mentor, the one who had taken them out of the shadows and given them purpose. There was no way they were going to leave without her.

Tyrian also chose to stay behind, changing his mind just as they were going to board Dr. Watts's invisible shuttle. He was far too itchy for battle to leave now. Of course, he wasn't stupid enough to engage the knight from another world in a one-on-one fight. But those girls over there might make for easy prey. If he could just get to Weiss, that knight would be history.

Bedivere glanced over at the three remaining underlings. He had to keep an eye on Tyrian. He was the most likely to try something sneaky. The green-haired girl could pose a serious enough threat as well if she tried to use her Semblance on him, but he had more than his fair share of mind games in the past. Even now, as he repeatedly clashed blades with Cinder, the Wraith whispered to him. Fortunately, it had been silent throughout his battle with Adam, and without that distraction and with the full cooperation of his Nexus, he was able to attain victory.

However, Cinder was right. He had used up too much power in that attack. The combination of all four elemental high runes was normally done only by a group of the most experienced of mages and it would take all of their power just to use the _Primordial Chaos_ even once. That Bedivere was still able to fight at this level was a miracle. He'd had no choice, though. Even though Adam's sword ultimately failed, it took all of that power to overcome his Semblance.

All of that was in the past. The only thing that mattered now was Cinder, the Fall Maiden, who had inherited the Maiden's full power and trained herself to the level of ability she now possessed, which was the greatest threat he had seen since his arrival on this world. Had he been at full power, this match would have been over before it began, but after expending so much of his strength on the thousands of Grimm earlier and then against Adam, he was at less than half strength. He could barely keep up with Cinder's phenomenal speed.

"You're faster than the esteemed White Fang leader," Bedivere said as they got into a blade deadlock.

"Are you trying to hit on me?" Cinder said with a grin.

"I have to admit, you are quite the beautiful lady."

"Thank you. And I wasn't trying to pull your leg when I called you handsome. It's too bad we're on opposite sides. That, and the fact that you like to call people names."

"You don't like the title 'False Maiden'?"

Her face instantly turned sour. "You really know how to irk people, don't you?"

"I thought it was a cute pet name."

Her eyes glowed and an explosion struck him in the chest, hurling him backwards. He somersaulted a number of times before landing on his feet.

"I changed my mind about you," Cinder said, floating just above the ground. "I'm definitely gonna kill you."

"You'll have to step up your game, then."

She grinned. "I was hoping I wouldn't have to."

—

"Damn it, there's no end to this," Qrow said, slashing through another set of Beowolves. "We need to find the Omegas controlling these assholes!"

"We're on it!" Penny said as Jaune led the way into the fray in search of their target. Penny's scanning ability would allow them to proceed on their search and destroy mission.

"Hey, old man," Sun said, standing back to back with Qrow.

"The fuck?" he said.

Sun began laughing. "I'm just trying to keep the mood up. Winter and Hillphire are kickin' some serious ass, eh? And look at Oscar. He's keeping up just fine."

"Well, you guys did do some pretty serious training with that knight."

"Yeah. We owe everything to that guy."

Qrow looked over to Hollie, who fought along side a number of Coalition soldiers, including a few other Faunus.

"I'm-a go give them some backup!" Sun said as he dashed to where Hollie was fighting.

Qrow watched carefully. Hollie had warned him of her Semblance's tendency to go haywire whenever her own morale dipped low enough. So far, he saw nothing of the sort, but still, he needed to keep an eye on his team.

—

Weiss gasped as Cinder landed a powerful hit on Bedivere's armor, breaking off a piece from his upper arm.

"What happened to all that big talk earlier?" Cinder said floating above him.

"The 'big' went somewhere else," he said. "As I said, you are a very attractive woman."

She smirked. "You think that's gonna score you brownie points?"

"Of course not. I'm just making excuses now."

"Uh-huh."

—

Hollie felt sick to her stomach. She had just watched another Coalition soldier go down to the Grimm. There wasn't even anything left to bury by the time the Beowolves were finished with him.

 _Keep it together,_ she told herself. _This isn't the first time you've seen crap like this._

Another Coalition fighter, this one a younger Faunus boy probably no older than thirteen, was snatched up into the sky by a Nevermore. That was the last straw for her. She froze in place as she felt her Semblance begin to act up. She needed to get away before it kicked in, but she could already sense the negativity seeping through the air from her body. She needed to keep her mouth shut as she ran, or else her Labyrinth would come true right this very moment.

Just as she started to run, she found herself swept off her feet. The world whirred by as someone carried her at extreme speeds out of the battlefield, up to rooftops, and finally to the steeple of a bell tower. She looked around. She was on top of Beacon Academy's dorms. She looked to her side. Qrow was standing next to her.

"You okay?" he asked.

She nodded, trembling.

"You looked like you were gonna pass out, so I grabbed you and pulled you out of there."

"Because of my Semblance."

He shook his head. "Nah. Cuz you're a member of my team and I wasn't gonna let nothin' happen to ya."

She smiled. Even now she could feel her Semblance calm back down. She wasn't going to cause a mass suicide, not this time.

"I told you you're good luck," she said.

"This again, huh?" Qrow said.

She nodded, tucking a lock of her hair behind her ear as the wind blew.

"That optimism," he said as he took a seat, letting his feet dangle over the edge. "I haven't been able to enjoy that since I first realized what my Semblance was."

"You mean when you mistakenly realized it," she said, taking a seat next to him.

He chuckled. "I'm still waitin' on your prediction, by the way."

"It's because you're not paying attention. Good things have already happened to you. You just don't wanna see it."

"Whaddya see in me anyway?"

She looked over at him. He was looking off into the distance. "I see someone who really wants the best for his loved ones. And his mistaken belief that he's a bad luck charm is what forces him to keep his distance from those he cares about most."

He looked at her.

"I'm not scared, you know. Hell, I have to deal with this crazy Semblance of mine every day."

"You sure you're not scared? You've been next to me for a while now. A brick might come loose and—"

He found himself plummeting down the side of the wall, but his fall was stopped by a strong hand. He looked up. She had grabbed him just in the nick of time.

"Are you just gonna stare into my beautiful eyes?" she said. "C'mon!"

He chuckled as they worked together to hoist him back up to the roof.

"Whew!" she said.

"Do you believe me now?" he said, dusting himself off.

"Funny, because I was just about to say that exact same thing."

She was right. Whatever it was that happened just now, he didn't know whether to call it fortune or misfortune. He expected those reflexes and that strength from a well-trained Faunus, but still.

"I guess miracles do happen," he said with a sigh.

—

Bedivere yelped as Cinder nailed him right on the chest plate. The armor protected his body, but the force behind the hit was incredible and it knocked the wind out of him. He tumbled around on the ground a number of times before managing to land in a squat.

 _You keep ignoring me. And that's why you're losing._

"How many times do I have to keep telling you to shut up?" he said quietly.

"You've been talking to yourself a lot," Cinder said. "Are you losing your mind or something?" She looked over at Emerald. She didn't seem to be using her Semblance on him.

 _I told you to let me take over from here._

"I'm never going to do that."

 _Then, you're going to die. And Weiss will die right after that, then Ruby, and Yang, and Blake, and everyone you care about. Again. Just like before._

"The last time was because of _you_!"

 _No, Bedivere. That was all you. You were the one who refused to bond with me, the one who ran away and dumped all of your negative emotions on me. I didn't deserve that kind of treatment. And yet here I am, offering to kill that bitch for you, and you won't accept my offer._

"I will not willingly give myself over to you."

 _So, you're not willing to tarnish yourself, but you're willing to get yourself killed and, by proxy, Weiss. I don't understand you. You're the most impractical, idealistic idiot I know. I guess that's not saying much since you're the only person I know this well, but still._

"Shut up already!"

 _Do you know what else is going to happen? Because if you think they're going to kill her quickly, think again. All of that stuff you mistakenly believe I would do to her, they would actually do to her. Before she dies, and that's if they allow her to die, they will first put her through a worse hell than the state that you've left our home world in._

Doubts now began to flood his mind.

 _Bedivere. Just say it. Say 'yes'. I will end this battle for you._

"I...can't..."

 _Then, you're a fool. And Weiss is going to suffer for it._

Bedivere's resolve was broken enough that he allowed his Wraith to surface. Black light shot out from his body as that shadowy being from another world emerged.

"Is this that thing Watts mentioned?" Cinder asked herself. "He said it was strong, but it just looks dark to me."

"Bedivere!" Weiss cried out.

Bedivere looked over to her. That was all it took for his resolve to come back to him and retake control of his body.

 _You fool! What are you doing? I am your only chance at victory right now!_

"That may be so," Bedivere said, "but I am not willing to become the shadow just to defeat the darkness."

 _Even now, you refuse to bond with me! This is why our home is the hell that it is! Because you are a fool who refuses his own self!_

"No, you and I are not alike. We are night and day."

 _And it will continue to be so because of your foolishness. Do not do this, Bedivere. Do not seal me away._

"I'm not. Just, please, stay inside and be quiet."

Bedivere had rejected the power of the Wraith. Its magic coupled with his would have increased his power enough to completely overwhelm the Fall Maiden with just a wave of the hand, but down to the last moment, this Knight of Kameloth was unwilling to tarnish his soul for victory. He would find another way.

Or perhaps he would not. Cinder's onslaught was impossible to defend against. Weakened by his struggle with the Wraith, Bedivere could barely manage a defense against a whirlwind of attacks. By now, Cinder was outpacing him. He helplessly took hits from behind, from the side, from above, from every direction as she danced circles around him.

"It's that damn Wraith," Yang said, balling her fists, her eyes turning red with rage.

"What the heck are we gonna do now?" Blake said.

Ruby looked over at Weiss, whose face was painted with dread as they watched Bedivere's armor fall off piece by piece. When none of his armor remained and he was on his knees, Cinder stood before him, forming her weapon into a bow.

"I guess that was all you could manage, huh?" she said, aiming her weapon at him.

Ruby put her hands to her mouth. This was the exact same scene she had come upon when Cinder murdered Pyrrha.

"All talk. That's what you are."

She fired the arrow. Weiss put her hand over her own heart. The pain, it was unbearable. It wasn't the pain of the arrow sinking into his chest. Rather, it was the pain of losing him, of losing a part of herself. Tears streamed down her eyes as a fire burned within her, something that she had never felt before. It was the rage of life itself, the primal desire to burn into the darkness.

"At least you didn't go down without a fight," Cinder said, walking up to him to finish him off.

Before she could end his life for good, something flew at her with extreme speeds. She looked to the side just in time to put up her arms in defense. Weiss had used several speed Glyphs to fly at her hard enough to push her back, her feet carving trails in the earth.

"What the hell is this?" Cinder said. "Are you challenging me?"

Weiss didn't answer. She looked over at Yang, Blake, and Ruby, who were getting Bedivere off the ground.

"We'll get him to safety," Yang said.

"Oh, no, you don't!" Tyrian said as he, Emerald, and Mercury moved in to attack, but they were intercepted by Team JNPR.

"Go!" Jaune said. "Get him somewhere safe!"

Blake and Yang nodded as they dragged him to the base.

"We'll keep these kids busy, ma'am," Emerald said.

"Good," Cinder said. "While you're doing that, I'm gonna be sure to melt this glacier."

Weiss tightened her grip on Myrtenaster. This was going to be yet another battle in which she was way over her head. But that didn't matter. Bedivere had nearly given up his own life. She was going to fight through this and come out on top, no matter what it took.

"You really are something," Cinder said. "You saved his life just now, only to throw your own away. That means what you just did was pointless. He'll die with you, you know."

"Only one of us is going down today," Weiss said, readying Myrtenaster for battle. "And it's not gonna be me!"


	42. Chapter XLII

CHAPTER XLII

 _Silber Jungfrau_

"Finally," Hillphire said as the Grimm's numbers began to die down. "I thought we were never going to see the end of that."

"This is probably just another lull in the fighting," Winter said. "Get yourself rested up and refill on Dust if you need to."

"No need to tell me twice."

"Where did those other kids go?" Qrow said as he and his team joined them.

"I saw them headed to the front gate," Ghira said as he and Kali walked over to them.

"Mr. and Mrs. B!" Sun said. "Woo! I knew you guys could fight, but man, that was awesome. I can see where Blake picked it up from!"

Ghira scowled at him while Kali gave him a smile.

"You've been eating right, haven't you?" Kali asked him.

"Yes, ma'am. Makin' sure to stay fit for battle!"

"Hey," Oscar said, pointing over to the distance. "That's..."

"Bedivere!" Hollie yelled as they ran to the infirmary where Yang, Ruby, and Blake were taking him.

"What happened?" Hillphire said as they caught up.

"Cinder," Yang said as they laid him out on a stretcher.

"Okay, let's go," Blake said.

"Wait, where are you going?" Sun said.

"Weiss needs our help."

"I'm coming, too, then."

"Someone needs to stay with him," Ruby said.

"I'll stay," Hollie said.

"Same," Hillphire said.

"Okay, Sun you go with them," Winter said. "The rest of us will stay here with Bedivere and to protect the tower just in case."

—

"Weiss!" Jaune cried out as he clashed blades with Tyrian, who took on both him and Ren at the same time. Nora was facing off with Emerald while Penny dealt with Mercury.

Each one had their hands full and could provide Weiss no support at all. She had put up a valiant fight, but Cinder was on an entirely different level. Even after her fight with Bedivere, she still possessed enough strength to toy with her opponent.

Weiss fell to a knee, leaning against Myrtenaster as she tried to catch her breath. Her aura had just been broken and there was nothing left at her disposal. It seemed Cinder would win this one.

"Well?" Cinder said, still floating in the air above her, still glowing with power. "Are you just gonna sit there and die? Or are you gonna call to your knight? Although, I guess that would be pointless. Still, I hate having unfinished business. I need closure with him. I'd appreciate it if you could just call him so I don't have to go through the entire Academy just so I can kill him."

Weiss slowly looked up at Cinder, panting as she made eye contact.

"C'mon. We all know you have the power to call him to your side. Frankly, I'm surprised he hasn't already sensed your distress and come flying here. Then again, having a hole in your chest would make that difficult."

She gripped her weapon tightly, resolve burning through her like the flames of hell itself.

"Don't worry. I'll wait. I want you to call out to your knight. I want the last thing he sees before he disappears to be your death."

"You think," Weiss began as she rose to her feet, "that I'm some of kind of damsel-in-distress? That I need to call on everybody to help me?"

"Isn't that how it's been, O Dust Princess?"

"Shut up."

"Hmm?"

"You could never understand. Someone like you who only exists to trample on others. You could never understand what is in our hearts!"

"You're still gonna challenge me, are you?"

"I will never back down. Not from you, False Maiden."

Cinder's face instantly went sour. "You are gonna pay for that. If you won't call to him, I'll just have to keep carving you up until your wounds appear on his body."

"Go ahead," Weiss said, the fury and determination shining within her like a newborn star. "If you think you have what it takes, then just try it!"

"You've got guts for a Schnee, I'll give you that much. Now, it's time for your end, Princess!"

Cinder built up an enormous amount of power in her hand, conjuring up a fireball so bright that it made the sun appear dim. Still, Weiss stood her ground, the light in her burning more intensely than she'd ever felt in her life. There was not an ounce of fear in her. It wasn't that she did not fear death. In Weiss's mind right now, death was not even a consideration.

She was going to be this world's shield. And there was no one who would be able to stop her.

"I shall not be overcome!" Weiss yelled, her voice echoing across the fields. "For I, Weiss Schnee, at this very moment, vow to be the shield that defends Remnant against all darkness!"

Cinder watched as a subtle pulse emerged from her body. "Hmph," she said. "It's too little, too late! I will sear you from existence!"

Weiss stood fast as Cinder's fiery attack descended upon her. The resolve within her soul was absolute. Not a hint of doubt. And then, just as the fireball impacted her body, something exploded from within, nullifying the inferno until nothing remained.

"What!" Cinder cried out as she shielded her eyes against a bright light that emerged from Weiss's very core.

—

Bedivere's eyes shot open. "Weiss!" he screamed.

"Bedivere!" Hillphire yelled as he and Hollie ran to him.

Ruby and Yang ran back into the infirmary along with Sun and Blake.

"What's happening?" Yang said.

"Weiss!" he yelled again. He writhed and flailed before his armor exploded onto his body, the gold and blue glowing for a time before he lie completely still. They all watched with eyes and mouths open as he began to disappear, fading away from existence, small wisps of gold, silver, and blue floating into the air before vanishing.

"No," Ruby said, shaking her head as she covered her mouth with her hands. "No, no, no, no, no! Weiss!" She darted out of the tent, followed closely behind by everyone else, even Winter.

—

Cinder watched in disbelief as Weiss's body transformed, light radiating brightly enough to compete with her own Maiden power. But this phenomenon happening to this girl now was unlike anything they had ever seen in this world, for the power exploding from Weiss was not that of a Maiden, but something else entirely.

"What is this?" Cinder cried out.

 _Cinder!_ Salem's voice sounded in her head. _Get out of there!_

"But Madam!"

 _Leave! Now!_

"You're not going anywhere," Weiss said as her entire body became clad in a full suit of knightly armor, which matched Bedivere's armor almost identically in design, silver in color with gold detailing topped off with a blue cape and golden dragon embroidery on the center.

The final thing to transform was Myrtenaster, which served as the foundation for a knightly sword of unmatched brilliance. Its hilt was designed with an abundance of gold detail and exquisite leather on the handle, but the cross guard was exceptional, appearing as a golden pair of angelic wings that extended upward in the direction of the blade.

"What is that?" Cinder yelled.

"This is your end, False Maiden!" Weiss said.

"Don't make me laugh!"

Cinder built up another fireball in her hand and hurled it at the Silver Maiden, but one swing from her new sword and the fireball went flying in another direction to explode harmlessly over the ocean.

 _Cinder, what did I say?_

"I can't get away now! She has her sights on me!"

 _Just flee!_

"Not gonna happen!" Weiss said, holding her new sword over her head. She closed her eyes as the sword began to whisper into her mind. "Durandal, huh? Is that your name? And you wish for me to eradicate this evil from the face of this world?"

Cinder gasped.

"Then, I shall carry out your wishes. Durandal! Show us your power!"

The sword glowed with magnificent brilliance, drowning the surrounding land in rays of heavenly light. It pulsed several times as it concentrated an unfathomable amount of power within its steel body.

" _Himmelslicht_!"

The flash of light created by the sword was bright enough to dispel every shadow within a certain distance. For some time, nothing was visible through the whiteout, but eventually the light dropped in intensity, revealing a great beam of energy projecting up into the sky. When that finally vanished as well, Cinder was gone.

Weiss looked up at the sky. Her enemy was nowhere in sight, but something told her that the war was far from over.

"Weiss!" Yang shouted as she ran to her. "What the hell was that? What the hell is going on? And what the hell are you wearing?"

"Huh?" Weiss said, turning to all of her friends, who were running in her direction.

"My scanners detected an enormous amount of energy from that attack," Penny said. "But that was at a level that is comparable only to the Maidens. I do not detect Maiden energy from you."

"What are you guys..." Weiss trailed off before she brought up Myrtenaster, or rather, what should have been Myrtenaster. "What in the world?"

"Yeah!" Yang said. "Exactly!"

"Dude," Jaune said. "You're uh, uh, a, uh—"

"Knight!" Sun finished. "You're a knight!"

Blake pulled out her scroll before snapping a quick photo and showing it to Weiss.

"What?" she screamed before examining herself. "When did this happen?"

"When Cinder was about to kill you," Ren said.

"Huh? How?"

"That's what we'd like to know," Nora said.

"Hmm," Ren said, examining her. "Your armor matches Bedivere's to the detail. It's got the same gold detailing, same silver luster, even the same blue cape and roaring dragon embroidered in gold on the center."

Weiss's eyes opened wide. "Bedivere!"

The others were instantly sullen. Weiss turned to Ruby, whose emotions were the most raw out of the group.

"Weiss, I'm sorry," Yang said.

"What happened?" Weiss said, her voice cracking. "Where is Bedivere?"

"Bedivere's," Ruby sobbed. "He's...he's..."

"Right behind you," his voice sounded.

Weiss turned around, the tears in her eyes flying out as she ran and threw herself over him. Their armor met with a loud clang.

"What's the matter?" he chuckled.

"But," Hillphire began, "we all watched you disappear."

"Yeah," Sun said. "With all the little twinkling dust and everything."

"To be perfectly honest," Bedivere began, "I do not know what happened myself. I remember Weiss's voice, and then her face, and then blackness. And the next thing I know, I'm standing out here with all of you, and..." He knocked on her armor, his metal gauntlet ringing against her metal back plate.

Weiss let out a sob mixed with a chuckle. "You really know how to be unromantic," she said.

"I do try my best," he said, scratching his head.

She pulled back from him. "I think we need an explanation." She noticed his hair, which had turned white as snow, matching her hair in color. Her eyes opened wide. "We need a really big explanation!"

"Yes," Winter said. "We do. We need an explanation as to why I have just received a report that all of the Grimm in all of Vale have vanished and how there are no traces of Cinder or her forces. Also..." She pointed to the top of the CCTS tower. The petrified Dragon Grimm was missing.

"Huh?" Ruby said. "Where did it go?"

"That's a very good question. Now, since we have plenty of time, let's head to the school cafeteria and talk about things there."

—

"Simply put," Bedivere began, "you are the reincarnation of the Shieldmaiden, known in the Ancient Frankish Kingdom as the Schildmaid."

"What's a Shieldmaiden?" Yang asked.

"According to legend from my world, the Frankish peoples had a great defender who showed up in times of great need. Just as Albion had Arthur, who would rise during Albion's times of greatest need, the Franks had the Shieldmaiden, who would rise whenever the country faced an insurmountable threat. The legends hold that she has risen up many times in history. One of those times was as the ancient hero Jeanne d'Arc, a legendary warrior who brought salvation to the Frankish Kingdom. The most recent incarnation of the Shieldmaiden was in Gwenhwyfar, daughter of Charlemagne and King of the Franks. And now, the spirit has been reborn in you, Weiss."

"But how is that possible?" she asked.

"How is me being transported through time and space possible?"

"Good point, but still."

"There is something my old masters once taught me, that delving into the most forbidden of magic is dangerous precisely because you never know what else you will be allowing into the world. When you summoned me here, that same principle was at work. There is no way of knowing what else might have come here with me. The Wraith is proof of that."

"So, this Shieldmaiden thing, it followed you here?" Yang asked.

"Put simply, yes. At least, it was the essence of the Shieldmaiden that must have latched on to me as I traveled through the void between time and space. I would not be surprised if it has been inside you all this time."

"What do you mean?" Ren asked. "As in, on that same day you came here, it became part of her?"

Bedivere nodded as he drank. "Most likely, it used me as a courier to transport itself here until it could find a suitable vessel. The Shieldmaiden exclusively chooses women, the same as your world's Maidens."

"And so it chose Weiss," Jaune said.

"Yes. It does not choose randomly. It must have detected the dormant desire in her to protect the world. And when the idea finally cemented itself in her heart, it made itself known, fully assimilating with her."

"Because of your declaration," Nora said. "You announced that you would be the shield of Remnant, or something like that."

"Did you?" Bedivere asked Weiss, who nodded.

"I mean," she began, "it wasn't meant to be a declaration or anything like that. I was just...I mean, I had my back against the wall. I was only trying to come up with something witty to tell Cinder before she killed me."

"Doubtful. The Shieldmaiden would only manifest itself if your heart was sincere."

She shrugged.

"So, what powers does she have with this thing?" Hillphire asked.

"The Shieldmaiden is empowered with a great number of abilities," Bedivere began, "particularly the means to use magic and the right to bear Durandal, the unbreakable sword of the Franks, which has protected them for eons. It is the Frankish equivalent to Caliburn. The main difference is that Durandal is an incorruptible holy sword, unlike Caliburn, whose state reflects its bearer."

"You said she can use magic," Winter said. "Does that mean she no longer needs to use Dust?"

"Try it out," Bedivere said to Weiss, who hesitantly held out a hand.

She had absolutely no idea what she was doing and, naturally, nothing happened. Bedivere's fingers wrapped around her other hand and she closed her eyes. It was as though he was dumping an enormous amount of information through their bond, but at the same time it was all familiar to her, as if she were destined to be the Shieldmaiden all along.

She willed fire to appear and that was exactly what happened. Those nearby watched in awe as the flame danced in her palm, which did not get burned by the heat.

"Whoa," Ruby said. "And you don't even need Dust to do that!"

"It's like we have two Bediveres!" Penny said.

Weiss allowed the flame in her hand to hypnotize her. All of this was too much for her to handle, but again, it felt as though it were always meant to be, that this is exactly who she had always been for her entire life. She willed the power of ice into her palm and the flame froze into a bluish crystal.

"Oh, that is _cool_!" Yang said.

Sun high-fived her.

"We can take the fight to Salem now," Oscar said. "Ozpin's saying that we no longer need the other Maidens if we have your world's Shieldmaiden on our side."

"Silver Maiden," Hollie corrected him.

"It's even more appropriate now given this revelation," Ren said.

Weiss looked over at Winter, who was smiling at her.

"I'm proud of you," the elder sister said. "If only father could see you. Maybe he would stop being so hard on you."

"Thanks, Winter," Weiss said.

"Now," Winter began, turning to Bedivere, "the other elephant in the room that needs some explanation. Why in the world did your hair suddenly turn white?"

"That, I have absolutely no explanation for," Bedivere said. "Had you not pointed it out, I never would have realized it until seeing my own reflection."

"Oooh!" Ruby said excitedly. "It's because! Because, because, because!"

"Because he's Weiss's knight!" Penny said just as excitedly.

The two girls jumped up and down, hand-in-hand.

"I mean," Ren began, "I can accept that explanation."

"It would make sense," Nora said, eating a slice of her pancake. "As much sense as any of this makes, anyway."

Weiss turned to Bedivere, admiring his snow-white hair. It was a stark contrast to the brown hair he had first appeared with.

"Is it terrible?" he asked her.

"No!" she said. "Not at all! It's great on you!"

"As long as you are happy with it."

She smiled. There was no way not to notice the symbolism of the situation. She had received from him this phenomenon known as the Shieldmaiden while he gained a physical trait that was signature to her, although hair color certainly wasn't the first thing he had ever inherited from her. It was no coincidence that his runic power was so similar to her glyph Semblance, or that he contained the virtues she so longed for.

Bedivere stood up, placing a light hand on her shoulder. She watched as he left the cafeteria. After a moment, she, too, got up and left.

"Who knew we'd be involved in crazy stuff like this?" Ruby said, sticking her fork into a piece of ham.

—

Weiss followed Bedivere all the way to the fountain in the courtyard, which had just been repaired and returned to working order. It was a weird thing to have spent resources on when there were more important things to fix. She spotted Glynda Goodwitch, who was working with a number of other repair crew. That explained things. Now that she was back and the Grimm were no longer around to wreak havoc, repairs would go quickly.

"So, this is where you met Ruby and the others," he said to her as the fountain displayed all sorts of patterns.

"Actually," Weiss said, standing at the exact spot on the walkway where she had run into Ruby. "This is literally where we first met."

"She said you knocked her over, correct?"

"Uh, excuse me, but _she_ knocked _me_ over."

He chuckled. "And then sneezed on you, was it?"

"After snorting half my Dust!"

He smiled as he walked to her. "This is a beautiful campus. Almost as beautiful as you."

She reddened. "Do you have to be so cheesy?"

"I can't help it," he said, wrapping his arms around her. "When I'm with you, my heart overflows and I cannot hold it in."

"Oh, goodness."

They spent some time in each other's arms before he looked down into her face. He placed his hand on her cheek, running his thumb over her eyebrow, where her scar sat.

"It was me who caused this," he said.

She shook her head. "No, it was the one who came before you."

"I could heal it completely if you wish."

"I know. But, I always kept it. As a reminder of what I've overcome."

"The challenge your father forced you to undertake in order for you to attend this academy instead of Atlas?"

She nodded. "I'm so happy I don't have to explain things for you."

"I still would prefer to hear your voice than to just mingle our memories together."

"Here comes the cheese again."

He chuckled. "Tell me the story."

"Really?"

"As I said, I wish to hear your voice."

"Oh, gosh. Well...yeah. That thing I'm able to summon, that was actually a suit of armor possessed by a Grimm. Do you still remember that first battle you fought? When you protected the village we were in while I was recovering?"

"Yes, I do remember the robot possessed by the Geist."

"It was the same as the thing I fought myself, except, of course, yours had machineguns and missile launchers. Mine had a really big sword."

He unsheathed his claymore and stuck it into the ground, leaning against it.

"Yeah," she chuckled. "Like that."

He looked down at the ground. That scar over her eye might not have been caused by him, but she did bear a scar from him, one that could not be seen.

"That wasn't you," she said, responding to his thoughts.

"But it was," he said.

She shook her head. "I consider you and the Wraith separate beings. You might be two sides of the same coin, but each side is distinct from the other. You and he couldn't be any more different."

She was right. There was still some distinction between him and the Wraith, but that distinction was starting to disappear with each reemergence. She could sense the distress and walked up to him, taking his hands in hers as she reached up to kiss him.

"Ich bin dein für alle Ewigkeit," he whispered.

She kissed him again, longer this time. With everything happening, there was no way to know if they would be able to share another kiss like this and she wanted to take in every ounce of the moment. She felt a tear fall down the side of her face.

"Weird," she said. "Why am I crying?"

He wiped the tear away before giving her another kiss. The sun was beginning to set when they decided to walk around campus, talking about random things, mostly exchanging stories about their pasts. She wished she could see his old home, that place that overflowed with magic. They didn't have anything like that on Remnant aside from the Maidens and the gods.

"Perhaps someday," he said. "If the fates are willing."

She smiled. She knew it was never going to happen, not with his world in its current state. Even if they did figure out a way to cross that bridge to his home planet, it's not as if they'd be able to do anything about the hell on earth brought about by the Wraith.

"Bedivere," she said. "After all this is over, would you come live with me?"

"Like in your Labyrinth?" he said.

"Yeah, except for real this time."

He smiled. "Can you handle four children?"

"Only if you've got the stamina."

"From what I recall, they were no more than a year apart. Do _you_ have the stamina for that?"

She took him by the hand, intertwining her fingers with his. "Is that a challenge?"

He chuckled as they took a seat on a bench together at the dock overlooking the water. The sun was beginning to set. She leaned against him as he put an arm around her shoulder, holding her close.

"I would like that," he said. "To live out a normal life together."

"You never got to have that in your day, did you?" she asked him.

He shook his head. "Every single waking moment I dedicated to keeping those with the gift of magic from using them for evil."

"Did you ever..." She didn't want to finish the question, but of course he already knew what she wanted to ask.

"Yes. I ended up killing far too many fellow mages in my time. The human heart is too easy to corrupt. Ironically, I ended up understanding why the late King Uthyr had enacted such harsh restrictions on magic. I even became an enforcer of similar laws when Arthur became king. Although, I suppose none of that matters anymore since I—"

She silenced him with a kiss. "That was not you," she said.

"But—"

"No, Bedivere. It wasn't you."

He wanted to believe. He truly did. But it was impossible.

"Just...sit here with me. Let's watch the sunset."

He tried to be strong for her, but the Connection Semblance made it so that she could feel every doubt and every regret in his mind. He chose to direct his focus on the sunset, just as she had said. At the very least, he could drown those negative emotions out, even if he could not be rid of them altogether.


	43. Chapter XLIII

CHAPTER XLIII

 _Zwei Herzen, Eine Seele_

Ruby was the first of her team to wake up; at least, that's what she had thought before looking over to Weiss's bed, which was empty. They had taken their old room from when they were still students here. Team JNPR had gotten into their old room across the hall as well. Everybody else was lodged in the same building on different levels.

"Where's Weiss?" Blake said as she yawned.

There was knocking on their door. Ruby opened up.

"Rise and shine!" Penny greeted loudly enough to jolt Yang out of her bed.

"Holy crap," Yang said, rubbing her head as she stood up. "Penny, what the hell?"

"It's breakfast time! You guys better hurry up before Nora finishes all the food!"

"Breakfast?" Ruby groaned. "The sun's not even up yet."

"Yup! We all gotta catch up to those other two!"

"Other two?" Blake said as Penny left the room. "Who's she talking about?"

—

Weiss let out a yell as she repelled Bedivere's magic attacks with Durandal. After dispelling the magic, she dashed forward to engage in a high-speed series of sword clashes with him, the entire exchange appearing as nothing more than a blur of silver, blue, and gold.

"You've gotten accustomed to your new powers quite quickly," Bedivere said, missing a swipe meant for her legs.

"I've got a good teacher!" Weiss said, missing a swing to his head.

Both held their hands out, building up power in their palms.

" _Frostatem_!" they chanted at the same time as two orbs of ice-cold energy flew from their hands and collided with each other, creating a glaciated landscape directly beneath the point of impact. Both Bedivere and Weiss flew through the dense fog generated by the rapid ice formation, continuing their whir of blade attacks, which was violent enough to shatter the ice and dispel the cold fog.

"How long have they been at this?" Glynda said as she and Ozpin joined Qrow and Winter, who had been watching the training bout for a half hour now.

"Since before we got here," Winter said. "I still can't believe the kind of power that these two possess."

"I don't know what it was that brought them here," Ozpin said, "but Weiss certainly has something to do with it. Perhaps she is the common link after all."

"I always figured my sister was special, but this is on another level entirely. There's no precedent for a Schnee's Semblance to be able to summon beings from another world."

"Maybe Hollie was right," Qrow said. "Maybe I _am_ good luck or something." He scoffed. "Well, if that were true, his Wraith wouldn't have tagged along for the ride."

" _Gewitter_!" Bedivere yelled, hurling a ball of lightning at Weiss.

" _Teufelsatem_!" Weiss shouted, countering with a fireball.

A storm of fire and lightning erupted where the collision happened. Weiss flew through the conflagration, swinging from above with Durandal, which Bedivere blocked with his claymore. The impact from her downward strike caused the concrete beneath Bedivere to crumble.

He saw an opening and moved in, getting past her defenses to grapple with her. She sensed his intentions and countered, but it was already too late. He had locked his arm with her own and it seemed he would bring her down to the ground for a swift victory, but she noticed one tiny misstep in his footwork and exploited that, redirecting his momentum until they ended up rolling on the ground, their armor ringing against one another, ending with her on top of him.

She panted as she smiled in victory, holding up a fist.

"All right," Bedivere chuckled, willing his armor to vanish. "I surrender."

"Do you, really?" she said, leaning forward and gripping him by the shoulders as her own armor dissipated.

"Yes, yes, I do!"

She giggled before placing a long kiss on his lips, running her fingers through his hair, which now matched hers in color.

"Hey, uh," Qrow said, interrupting them. "You're not alone in here, just so you know."

Weiss chuckled before resting her forehead on Bedivere's. She touched her nose to his as she let out another giggle before getting up off him, extending a hand to help him back up to his feet.

"You know what," Weiss said to him. "We should check out the city."

"Vale, you mean?" he said.

"Mm-hmm. Penny should be done cooking breakfast for all of us. Wanna go eat first?"

"Sure."

—

The noise in the dorm's dining room died down as both Weiss and Bedivere walked in.

"Honestly, I don't have anything left to teach you," he said, following after her. "Your footwork is perfect, your reaction time is better than mine, your strength, tactical thinking, everything. There's nothing else I can help you on other than providing a good sparring partner."

"And a good sparring partner you have been," she said, clasping her hands behind her back as she glanced at him over her shoulder, giving him a smile.

He watched as she headed to the counter to accept a plate from Penny, who had just finished her own food.

"I still think it's cool that Hillphire built in a digestive function," Weiss said to her.

"Yup!" Penny said. "Although, if I'm to be honest, a single meal won't do it for me as far as fuel goes. Still, being able to taste food and enjoy a meal with friends, I wouldn't trade anything for that."

"More than just friends, Penny," Weiss said as she put a hand on her shoulder. "We're family."

Penny gave her a big smile, but beneath the smile was a tear wanting to fall out. What Weiss said couldn't be truer. They were more than just friends now. Everyone in this room was part of their family.

"Isn't this weird?" Ruby said.

"Bedivere's new hair color?" Yang said.

Ruby snickered. "Yeah, I'm not gonna get used to that for a long time. Although, it kinda makes sense for his hair to match hers now. No, I mean, Haven Academy should be starting classes right now, too. Around this time not that long ago, we were starting classes ourselves."

"Yeah," Blake said. "Although I doubt Beacon would start classes, considering what's going on."

Jaune looked down at the two swords hanging at his side. Pyrrha would be right here with them, too. In a way, she was, but not being able to hear her voice or to see her face was different from holding on to a memento. He felt a hand touch his and he looked at Ruby, who gave him a smile. He smiled back before standing up and walking to Bedivere, who was just about to receive his plates from Penny.

"Hey," Jaune said.

"Jaune," Bedivere greeted back. "Is there something you need?"

"No, but there is something _you_ need."

Bedivere watched as Jaune unhooked a sheath from his belt and drew Caliburn, its radiance bringing the room to silence.

"This belongs to you," Jaune said.

Bedivere hesitated to respond.

"I know all that stuff you said about it, and I know your Wraith is in there somewhere, but I've held on to this sword for long enough. It may have chosen me and decided that I was worthy enough to carry it, but it belongs with its true master."

"Its true master is dead," Bedivere said flatly.

Jaune shook his head. "He wouldn't be standing in front of me if he was."

Bedivere let his eyes explore that beautiful sword, the one remaining token he had of his king, Arturius Ambrosius, the Pendragon of Albion. Even though his mind told him that he had no right to bear this sword, Caliburn itself told his heart that it wished to be held by one of Arthur's retainers once more.

Jaune took a knee, holding the sword out for him to take. Bedivere let out a heavy sigh before reaching out hesitantly, stopping just inches from the hilt. After steeling his resolve, he grasped the handle. In an instant, a hundred years of memories came flooding back to him and his whole body shook, tears forming in his eyes as he held the sword up into the air, marveling at its magnificence.

He heard another sword unsheathe and looked to his right. Weiss was smiling as she held her sword up into the air as well. For the first time in five hundred years, Caliburn and Durandal would be together, in the hands of two warriors whose hearts were twined as one. Both swords began to glow and pulse, forming what felt to everyone in the room like a heartbeat.

 _Caliburn,_ he thought. _It has been so long since you and Durandal were brought back together._

It was as though they were repeating history. Centuries ago, Caliburn was held by Arthur and his queen Gwenhwyfar wielded Durandal. Together, they brought Kameloth and all of Albion into a new golden age.

 _Do you believe in destiny?_ Weiss's voice sounded in his mind. _Because after everything I've seen, I do._

They walked closer together, crossing their swords as they came within range. The shine that both Durandal and Caliburn now emitted was unlike anything. Although it could be described as so bright as to drown out the rays of the sun, it did not blind any eyes that gazed upon it. Instead, an overflowing warmth washed over everything the light touched and every single doubt and negative emotion vanished. A collective sigh sounded throughout the dining room as everyone's fears sloughed away.

When the light faded, everyone in the room was in tears, though no one could figure out why. It was as though the two swords had spoken to each and every person's hearts, whispering to them that everything would be all right.

Weiss smiled as she made eye contact with Bedivere. His sword hand was his right, while hers was her left. Even as they crossed swords, they were facing the same direction. They were perfect mirror images of each other.

"Caliburn has been returned to its rightful owner," Weiss said. "That's what Durandal is telling me."

"Caliburn tells me that it is glad to see Durandal again," Bedivere said. "It's been too long."

She smiled. The memories were not her own, but she shared in them. "Yes, it has been too long."

—

It still wasn't clear how Durandal's light was able to expel every single Grimm within Vale and the surrounding area, even after Bedivere's explanation. He, too, did not understand how it was possible given that the glow from Durandal specifically repelled creatures native to the World of Shadow, a parallel plane that existed on his home planet, not this one. Hillphire had speculated that the Grimm might have been similar enough to the Creatures of Shadow that Durandal still had some effect on them.

Nevertheless, the repopulation and rebuilding had begun. At Glynda's order, since Ozpin continued to mask his existence from their enemies, Vale's citizens had been moved back from Patch to the city proper. Those taking refuge at the Coalition base in Mountain Glenn were next to return to their homes, followed by those whom Vacuo had taken in during the months prior. Mostly everyone was glad to be home, of course, but there were plenty to whom "home" meant returning without their loved ones, some of whom had perished in the very buildings that should have provided sanctuary.

 _"That's the Schnee girl, isn't it?"_

 _"Yeah, and there's her knight!"_

 _"Thank the gods for them!"_

 _"I had no idea she was a knight, too!"_

 _"It's no wonder they were able to get rid of the Grimm so easily!"_

 _"Please, have some bread! It's on the house!"_

 _"Today, all Huntsmen and Huntresses get free drinks at my café! Oh, as long as you get something to eat, too, of course!"_

Weiss was overwhelmed by the tornado of kind gestures and appreciation from the citizens. While it was true that she played a role in the liberation of Vale from the Grimm, it wasn't as though she were alone in the whole thing. She had everyone else to rely on, too, especially her team. And, of course, her knight. She squeezed his hand as they walked along the promenade together with the rest of Team RWBY and Sun. Team JNPR was with them as well, with Hollie and Qrow hanging back from the group, deep in conversation.

"I'm never gonna get used to that," Ruby said, glancing back at Qrow and Hollie.

"Me neither," Yang said, also looking back at them over her shoulder.

"You know what," Jaune said, "they're happy. As weird as it is with her half his age, whatever. He makes her happy, she makes him happy, I'm happy with that."

"You being happy makes me happy!" Penny said.

"Oh, Penny," Nora said, resting her arm on Penny's shoulder. "Don't ever change."

A white suit of powered armor with blue and green detailing flew in from the sky, landing lightly among the group before retracting and revealing the pilot underneath.

"Sorry I'm late!" Hillphire said, straightening the metal wristbands and his belt.

"Liam!" Penny said with a little hop. "You made it!"

"I wouldn't miss this outing for anything. Well, I almost did, actually."

"You've moved up in the world," Ren said. "How is it being trusted with the most sensitive information at your age?"

"You swear as if it's something _you_ guys couldn't be trusted with."

"But you're literally in charge of a lot of stuff now," Ruby said. "You went from blacksmith to Winter's second-in-command. How did that happen?"

Hillphire shrugged.

"He answered the call," Bedivere said from up ahead. They all turned to him. "He heard the cries of need from the people and responded. Such is characteristic of a knight."

"I think you're talking me up a little too much," Hillphire said, scratching his head.

"Not at all. I actually consider you a fellow knight, if albeit a futuristic one rather than a traditional one. Still, you maintain all of the traditional qualities of a knight."

Hillphire found himself smiling. It was true that only a month ago he was no more than a blacksmith, who built weapons to be used against the Grimm and keep people safe. He hadn't deviated from that goal of keeping people safe. It was just that now he took a more direct approach.

"Speaking of which," Hillphire muttered. "I wonder how the forge is doing."

"Never mind that," Ruby said. "Look!"

There was a store down the street that did professional photography.

"Wait up," Yang said, pulling out her scroll. "We're not leaving anybody out of this one." She waited for an answer on the other line. "Oscar?"

"Hey, what's up, Yang?" he said, his voice on speaker.

"You're with Winter, right?"

"Yeah, did you wanna speak with her?"

"Both of you guys, actually."

"What is it?" Winter's voice came through.

"Are you guys busy? We're out and about in Vale."

"We are quite busy, actually. Salem is not going to sit and wait while we make our next move."

"Can you guys make it out here for a little bit?"

"What for?" Oscar asked.

"Big photo. Like, all of us. As in, _all of us_ all of us. Blake's parents, too. Oh, and Glynda."

"Please, Winter!" Weiss said into Yang's scroll.

"You hear that?" Yang said. "You're not gonna deny your little sister, are you?"

There was quiet for a little bit on the other end.

"Kali insists that we join you," Winter said. "We'll be there in a bit. But we're not staying for long."

"Yeah, just for a little while," Yang said. "Long enough to get a big group shot."

"See you there."

When the rest of the party arrived, Ruby gasped, throwing her hands over her mouth. Yang turned in the same direction.

"Dad?" she said.

"Dad!" Ruby yelled, throwing herself onto Tai.

"Whoa!" he said. "How've you been, kiddo?"

"Oh, you know, just killing Grimm and saving the world," she said. "Teenage girl stuff!"

He chuckled before embracing both of his daughters.

"You been lookin' out for your sister?" he asked Yang, who smirked.

"Who do you think's been keeping her in line?" she said.

They spent a lot longer getting their pictures taken. Instead of only the large group photo, Ruby insisted on having smaller group shots taken as well. Naturally, Team RWBY had a number of shots, including the silliest faces and poses they could make, with Team JNPR next. Team SHOQ had a group photo as well, with Qrow mostly disinterested, Oscar mostly confused, and Hollie and Sun hamming it up.

Penny and Ruby also had a few shots with just the two of them, followed by Ruby and Yang, Weiss and Winter, Hollie and Qrow, Tai with his daughters, Qrow with his nieces, Tai and Qrow together with the girls, Hillphire and Penny, Ruby with Jaune and Hillphire and Oscar, Ren and Nora, Sun and Blake, and even Team RNJR. At Sun's insistence, Blake had her photo taken with her parents as well, with Sun joining in at the second to last frame and Hollie joining the final shot.

Hillphire, Hollie, and Bedivere had also taken a few shots together, some of them silly thanks to Hollie's antics, which Hillphire joined in without hesitation, but the final shot was of them in an elegant pose, with Bedivere standing front and center, Hillphire to his right, and Hollie leaning against him on his left.

"You know who hasn't gotten a picture together yet?" Nora said.

"Them," Ren said, pointing to Bedivere and Weiss, who were mingling with their own groups.

"Hey!" Nora yelled to them. "What are you two waiting for?"

They both looked at her.

"It's your guys' turn, you know!"

Weiss and Bedivere looked at each other before he gave her a bow, gesturing for her to go first.

"Serious or funny?" Weiss asked him.

"Romantic!" Ruby yelled. "And cute! You gotta do cute!"

They both reddened.

"Well," Bedivere said. "You heard your best friend."

"Oh, gosh," Weiss said, stepping into the frame with him.

Their outfits matched perfectly, just like their first day together. She was dressed in a white coat with dark blue outline and gold buttons that she wore closed over a blue dress that was almost completely covered, with only a tiny portion of the blue hem at the bottom visible. Her thigh-high heeled boots were also white with blue outline. The only contrast was the locket, which she wore with the red side facing out.

Bedivere was dressed in a white coat that fell to his knees, which also had blue details and gold buttons. From the style, it looked to be made by the same manufacturer as Weiss's coat, both of them similarly elegant. His pants were pure white, boots white with blue detailing. Topping it all off was the fact that his hair was now the same color as Weiss's, white as snow. They matched in every way possible, even with the legendary swords hanging at their sides.

The first series of pictures they took were silly, at Hollie's insistence, gradually becoming sweeter and more romantic with each shot. One of the pictures in the "silly" category was of her jumping on him from behind with her arms around his neck and shoulders as she kissed his cheek while another had them playfully mimicking a dip from the waltz they had shared together before leaving Haven.

The next series of pictures were more romantic. Weiss was much too embarrassed with all of their friends watching to actually come up with any ideas, and so most of the poses were coordinated by Ruby and Winter, whose participation surprised Weiss more than anything.

"You're a Schnee," she said, "and my younger sister, and I will not tolerate you _not_ making such sweet poses with your knight."

"Ugh!" Weiss said. "I can only handle so much cheese!"

Bedivere chuckled before standing behind her and wrapping his arms around her waist. She instinctively placed her own hands on top of his. He leaned forward, recounting an incident that made her laugh and the photographer caught that perfect moment, with Bedivere smiling at her while she turned to him, pure joy on her face.

There were other sweet moments that Bedivere came up with himself, including one with him wrapping his arms around her shoulders tightly while she hung on to his forearm, one with them looking toward each other, faces inches apart without touching, and another with the two of them facing the side with her leaning back against him as he supported her. The most dramatic pose had the two of them sitting on the floor back to back, with her head turned to him while he looked toward the heavens.

"Okay, you guys _have_ to take some in full armor," Yang said. "I mean, you _have_ to."

Weiss looked at Bedivere, who shrugged before summoning forth his armor, which she followed.

"This is so weird," Sun said. "It's like, you're Bedivere with boobs. And he's a taller Weiss."

Blake smacked him on the back of the head.

"Thank you, Blake," Weiss said.

"I got you, girl," Blake said.

There were only three poses under this category. The first had them holding their swords outward parallel to one another. Because she was a lefty, it was easy to do a back to back pose. The next pose they did was with Bedivere in the foreground with Caliburn pointing down while he rested both hands on top of the pommel. Weiss stood just behind him, holding Durandal up, her eyes closed.

The final pose of the day was identical to the very first time Weiss had seen them in the mirror together, him standing just behind her offset to her right. On that day, she had wanted to capture that exact pose in that exact moment forever, but now it was actually happening. The big difference today was that his hair color was the same as hers and they were both fully dressed in matching knightly armor.

They both looked at the results of the shoot. That final photo was the perfect shot. As funny and romantic as all of the other shots were, both decided that the last one captured everything about them ideally, his strong and gallant posture the perfect complement to her small, elegant frame. Their facial expressions were right in the middle of everything that made them who they were, fully encapsulating Weiss's nobility and Bedivere's virtue.

"I like that one the best," Yang said, peeking between them.

"You, too?" Weiss said.

"Yeah. It looks...like you. Like, the _real_ you."

"I agree," Blake said. "All the others are cute and stuff, but this is everything about you. You're both kinda smiling, but not really, you know?"

"Yeah, I don't like it," Ruby said, making a face. "I like the one where you two are all laughing and it's so cute and oooh!"

"Oh, Ruby," Yang said. "Don't ever change."

"Hey!" Penny said. "Nora said that to me, too!"

Ruby and Penny held hands and hopped around with glee.

"Okay, now for the last picture," Hillphire said. "All of us. Together."

Cheers went around the group as everyone gathered in three rows, the very front kneeling or squatting, the middle row sitting on chairs, and the back row standing. Bedivere stood right behind Weiss, who was seated on a chair, his hands on her shoulders.

"Perfect!" Ruby said as they examined the end result. "Oooh! Look where Bedivere's hands are!"

"I'm so glad you two are finally, like, _together_ together," Nora said. "Because it was starting to get sad for a while."

Bedivere chuckled.

"Yeah, well," Weiss began, "I mean, it was a long and rough road."

"And the end result is _beautiful_!" Hollie said.

Each of them grabbed digital copies of all of the photographs, with some of the groups buying physical printouts. Of course, everyone took a printout of the big group picture. The largest copy went to Glynda.

"I think that belongs in the base of the tower," Oscar said. "Er, I mean, Ozpin says—"

"I know," Glynda said. "You don't have to explain yourself, Oscar."

"So," Yang said as the group gathered around on the thoroughfare. "Where to next?"

"We're going back to campus," Winter said as she stood with Hillphire, the Belladonnas, Glynda, Oscar, Tai, and Qrow. "There are things that need taking care of."

"You have to go, too?" Hollie said to Qrow.

"Yeah," he said with a shrug. "I don't really have a choice."

She frowned.

"Why don't you come with us?" Hillphire asked her.

She looked to Winter, who didn't object.

"Okay!" Hollie said. "I'll be quiet. Promise."

"Liam, you're leaving, too?" Penny asked him.

"I have to," he said, scratching his head. "But I'll come and join you guys as soon as we're finished."

"If we didn't take so long at the photography place," Winter said, "it wouldn't be a problem. But we were there for more than an hour."

"It's Ruby's fault," Yang said.

"Why is it always _my_ fault?" Ruby pouted.

"Now, now, girls," Tai said, giving them both a hug. "Ruby, it's not your fault."

"See!"

Yang rolled her eyes.

The rest watched as the other half of the group went back to campus. The only ones left were Team RWBY, Team JNPR, Sun, and Bedivere.

"It's like everything's come full circle," Ren said.

"Yeah, you even kicked Cinder's ass," Yang said.

"I don't think she's dead, though," Weiss said.

"What are you talking about?" Nora said. "You blasted her out of the sky. Every single Grimm within miles is gone."

"I know this is gonna sound weird, but it didn't feel like the beam of light hit her."

"You're right, that does sound weird," Sun said.

"But how could she have possibly dodged that?" Yang said. "Nora said it herself. Every single Grimm vanished when your sword's light touched them."

"Yeah, but Cinder's not a Grimm," Weiss said. "And like I said, I just didn't feel like the _Heaven's Light_ struck her at all."

"Awesome," Jaune said. "Your attack has a name."

"It's not so much an attack name as it is a spell," Bedivere said. "Caliburn's own signature spells also have names, or, more appropriately, incantations."

"Those are some short incantations for magic," Blake said.

"I believe it's because the majority of the incantation is already written," Penny said. "From observing the formation of Bedivere's runes, I noticed that the geometric arrangement of runic lettering seems to have a purpose."

"Penny is correct," Bedivere said. "Each rune is the crystallization of magic spells that have existed on my world for ages. Through time, each spell became more and more corrupted due to the natural evolution of languages. However, certain phenomena, such as the Nexus, can reach into the immaterial world and draw out magic that has been cemented as a rune."

"So there's no mistake in the incantation," Blake said.

"Right."

"So, can Weiss use that magic now?" Ruby asked.

"As the Shieldmaiden, she does not need to bear any runes. Magic flows through her as freely as it flows through my arm."

Weiss looked at him. Although it still sounded like an incredibly far-fetched idea, she knew this to be true. When she inherited the power of the Shieldmaiden, she had felt everything transform, from her body down to her very soul. Something fundamental about her had changed. She was no longer the Weiss Schnee she once was, but something far more. Or perhaps this is what she was always destined to be, the shield that protects Remnant. Her declaration wasn't something she just came up with on the spot. It was what had been in her heart forever.

"I think we should go to Forever Fall," Blake said.

"Yeah!" Ruby said. "The whole forest matches my hood!"

"Of course you'd go for the colors," Yang said.

"Forever Fall?" Bedivere said.

"Yeah," Weiss said, taking his hand in hers. "You'll love it there. The forest is beautiful!"

He smiled, placing a hand on her cheek. "As beautiful as you?"

She reddened. "Ugh! The cheese!"

Her whining instantly stopped as Bedivere planted a kiss on her lips. Her whole body went weak and warm simultaneously. It was the same every time their lips touched. She would forget everything she had just been talking or thinking about and her entire being would relax, as if she were safe and sound, with nothing in the world threatening her.

"Okay, we're all really happy for you," Nora said, "but you know, you guys could get a room every once in a while—"

Nora was also silenced with a kiss from Ren. Her face instantly went hot. She fought at first, but ultimately let herself be captured by the emotions now whirling through her. She felt her foot start to lift up off the ground.

"Well," Sun said, turning to Blake. "I mean, they're all doing it. You wanna?"

She rolled her eyes at him and walked away.

"Hey! C'mon!"

"No," she said flatly.

"Aww!"

Ruby snickered with Penny.

"Have you ever seen a shoulder so cold?" Ruby said.

"Nuh-uh," Penny said.

—

Weiss stared out the window at the moon, which was showing its unbroken side tonight. Their trip through Vale and Forever Fall couldn't have been any better. She had spent the entire day with the people closest to her, particularly the one who was closer to her than anyone else. Just thinking about it made her smile.

"You've been awfully dreamy all day," Yang said, lying on her stomach.

Weiss gave her a quick glance before turning back to the moon.

"Can't blame you, of course. You got to spend all day with your handsome prince. Lucky you. I had to baby-sit Ruby and make sure she and Jaune behaved."

Weiss chuckled. "You know you can trust those two, right?"

"Yeah, I know. I just enjoy c-blocking the shit out of Jaune."

Weiss laughed out loud. "I did catch several of those moments. Pure gold, by the way."

"I just never thought we'd ever be able to experience Forever Fall without a single Grimm there. It was really weird, don't you think?"

"Yeah. It was pretty surreal."

"I can't even imagine a world without Grimm, to be honest. But with you and your knight running around, I think that might become a reality."

Weiss looked down. "I wanna join in on the victory dance, too, but I've seen enough to know not to get my hopes up too much."

Yang hopped off her bed and walked over to her. "You wanna talk?"

"There's not really anything to talk about. He is who he is."

"You're referring to his Wraith."

Weiss nodded. "He assured me that it can't come out anymore. Apparently, Durandal has the power to repel 'creatures of the World of Shadow,' which the Wraith falls under. It was the reason he was able to suppress his Wraith during his time as a knight, when the previous Shieldmaiden fought alongside him and his king. And it's the thing that prevents it from coming out now."

"But?"

"I dunno. Maybe I'm just being paranoid."

"After what you've been through, it's understandable."

"Yeah, but still. He's finally at that point in his life where he deserves to be. Happy. You know?"

"So be happy with him."

"I _am_ happy. At least, I think I am."

"Is that why you chose to room with us and not him?"

She reddened. "Well, mostly it's because I wanted to do this again, since, well, it might be our last chance."

"Right. Of course. Cuz you love your team so much. Are you sure it's not just because you don't trust yourself?"

She reddened even more. "Yang! Don't think of me in such a lewd manner!"

Yang chuckled. "I'm just sayin'. Super sayin'."

"Ugh!" She leaned against the wall. "Although, you're probably right."

"Whoa! For real?"

Weiss nodded with a shy smile.

"You know they do sell condoms in the bathrooms, right?"

"Yang!" she shrieked.

"I'm just sayin'!"

"Super sayin'?"

"Exactly!"

"Well, don't! And I am well aware that they sell contraceptives on campus, okay?"

"Oh, so you've already gone shopping, huh? Huh?"

Weiss closed her eyes, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. "I'm going to bed."

Yang grinned as she watched her climb into her bed. "Okay, just don't be too loud," she said as she got into her own bed. "Cuz I'm trying to get some sleep, too."

"What do you mean 'don't be too loud'? What the hell do you think I'm gonna do right now, huh?"

She shrugged with a chuckle. "Whatever it is, just try to keep it down."

Weiss yelled before hurling a pillow at her.

—

"Forgive me, madam, but I am at a complete loss," Dr. Watts said. "Given the latest developments and with Adam still recovering, I don't know how we're going to continue our campaign."

"The good thing is they still can't figure out how to get here," Hazel said. "As it stands, this realm is still sequestered from the rest of Remnant."

"I don't understand how the hell they've gotten so powerful!" Tyrian said. "And that girl! Why does she have the same power as her knight?"

"That's enough," Salem said. "It won't do us any good to sit here and complain. We need only to bide our time. As it stands, we still have a Maiden on our team and the Spring Maiden should be joining us soon. Once we have all four of them on our side, we can't be stopped."

"All I know is I want another shot at that son of a bitch," Cinder said, clenching her fists.

"You may yet have your chance," an all-too-familiar voice said from the shadows at the other end of the room.

Everyone turned in the direction of the voice, weapons ready, all except for Salem.

"You!" Cinder yelled. "How the hell did you get here?"

Bedivere chuckled before stepping into the light. He was dressed fully in black.

"No, that's," Dr. Watts began.

"The Wraith," Hazel said.

Cinder looked at her comrades before turning back to him.

"I was hoping I'd see you again," the Wraith said. "Our last encounter was much too brief."

"So, then," Salem said. "What are you here for? You're clearly not here to attack us."

"Right. Mostly I wanted to see her again."

"Cinder?" Tyrian chuckled. "The hell do you want her for?"

"No reason in particular. There was just so much...fire between us last time, don't you think?"

Cinder growled at him.

"Now, please, you shouldn't all have to stand for my sake."

They all looked to Salem, who took her seat. They each followed suit.

"I have a proposal," the Wraith said, standing behind Cinder's chair.

"Hold on a second," Dr. Watts said, "just what kind of proposal?"

"Well, not the kind you're thinking," he said as he placed his hands on Cinder's shoulders. She snarled at him before he started massaging her, upon which she found herself relaxing. "As much as I would love to get to know Cinder, she's not my type." He took a seat next to her. "As it stands, Bedivere and Weiss are going to steamroll every single thing you have. The Grimm will experience a genocide unlike ever before seen. Of course, that does not matter since you have the power to spawn them infinitely, madam Salem."

"Get to the point," Hazel said.

"My point is that you allow the Coalition to advance as much as they can."

"That's your proposal?" Tyrian scoffed.

"I'm listening," Salem said, silencing the others.

"I'll get right to it, then," the Wraith said, standing up and orbiting the table. "My ultimate goal is to allow Bedivere and his precious friends to get within moments of attaining victory. And in that final moment, just as they are reaching for their final goal, I wish to snatch it from them."

"And you need us because?" Dr. Watts said.

"Because without you, they actually will attain victory, which is not what I want. I need all of you to remain alive and position yourselves to counter their advances the moment I am ready."

"And you'll let us know you're ready how?" Tyrian asked.

"You will know when the time comes."

"How do we know you're not just screwing with us right now?" Cinder asked.

He gave her a smile. "You can't, of course. Just as I can't trust you either."

"My only question," Salem said, "is how you are able to stay on the surface. From what I have seen, your personality is subservient to that of that knight."

"That is indeed true. And for a time, he thought he could keep me suppressed. When Durandal manifested itself in your world, its power was enough to keep me from interfering at all. But the moment he took Caliburn back into his hands, all of that was undone. Durandal is a holy sword. Caliburn's shine matches that of its bearer."

They watched as he drew his sword, which no longer had any of the shiny silver or gold on it. It was completely black in color.

"This sword is just as much a part of me as it is a part of him," he continued. "With it, I have the power to trade consciousness with him at will. The last thing he remembered was falling asleep. He'll wake up in the morning with no recollection of this whatsoever."

"What is your end goal?" Salem asked, leaning toward him. "Your true end goal. Why do you want to lead them on like that and then take everything away at the last moment?"

"Because hope makes despair all the sweeter," he said, his voice low and serious. "Make them believe that they can win. Let them see the light at the end of the tunnel. And just as they think they're saved, take it all away from them. And to answer your question, madam, my ultimate goal is to make him suffer. For everything he has done to me."

"Sealing you away."

"You seem to speak from firsthand experience, madam."

"You and I share some things in common."

"Only a few things. You wish to rule. I do not. I only wish to witness his despair."

"Then, you have a deal."

"I am pleased, madam!" the Wraith said gleefully. "This will likely be our only face-to-face interaction. I have plenty of things to prepare for, demises to plan, despair to look forward to." He turned to Cinder, giving her a seductive stare. "I look forward to seeing you again."

She scowled at him, watching him as he circled the table and headed back to her. He placed a hand on her cheek and she flinched, but the touch of his hand sent a strange sensation throughout her body.

"Unhand me!" she demanded, backing away from him before summoning her swords.

"Now, now," he said with a grin. "As much as I would love to role play as well, I need to run." He held up the Nexus, chanting something in a language no one in the room understood before aiming his hand at the door, projecting a cloud of purple-black smoke. "I hope the next time we see each other will be even more fiery than before."

"I've had it with you!" Cinder yelled before preparing to attack him.

"Cinder," Salem said.

She immediately stopped what she was doing and returned to her seat. The Wraith stopped just before walking into the black cloud.

"Is there something wrong?" Salem asked him.

"This story shall end in tragedy," he whispered. "Everything ends in darkness. In the beginning, there was only darkness, and in the end, there shall again be only darkness. When the last sparks of life have faded, all that shall remain is the dark. And when the heavens themselves fall, I shall crush the dark and return Everything into Nothing."

They watched as he was sucked into the cloud and disappeared.

"We can't trust him," Cinder said.

"And we won't," Salem said. "Just as he's using us, we will also use him. Once he has done what he has set out to do, we will crush him along with his precious Silver Maiden."


	44. Chapter XLIV

CHAPTER XLIV

 _Sieges Marsch_

With Bedivere and Weiss leading from the front, victory was within sight. Vacuo's liberation from the Grimm was next on the list, followed by key sections throughout all of Sanus and then the western section of Anima, bringing the whole team right back to Haven Academy. The string of victories over the month was enough to catch Ironwood's attention. He personally lifted the border closure, officially entering Atlas into the Coalition. And with the rebuilding of the Beacon CCTS tower and restoration of global communication, it seemed a sense of peace would once again return.

"There remains a serious problem," Ironwood said as he met with the Coalition Council, which consisted of James Ironwood himself and Winter Schnee, representing Atlas, Leonardo Lionheart, representing Mistral, Sun Wukong, representing Vacuo, Glynda, representing Vale, Ghira and Kali Belladonna, representing Menagerie, Ozpin, Hillphire, and Bedivere.

"What, that Professor Lionheart is on the council with us?" Sun scoffed.

"Sun!" Kali said.

"I'm just sayin'. We got into a lot of trouble for everything he did."

Lionheart looked down at the table.

"He did cause us a lot of trouble," Bedivere said. His voice carried all around the room, delivering authority with each syllable. "But that was the previous Lionheart, the coward that preceded you."

"Hollie's Semblance really works wonders," Hillphire said.

Lionheart turned to everyone in the room. "I cannot apologize enough for my cowardice," he said. "It led to my betrayal of our ideals and our goals. I nearly caused our downfall altogether. But, as Sir Bedivere has said, that was the previous Leonardo Lionheart. I refuse to be another of Salem's pawns ever again. It wasn't just Hollie's Semblance that helped me to find my courage. It was the deeds of Sir Bedivere and Lady Weiss Schnee. Seeing them on the fields of battle was more than enough to bring my heart to stir and move me."

"I'm sure we've all seen enough to believe in you now," Ironwood said. "Nevertheless, the serious problem I am speaking of is the existence of the Spring Maiden and Raven's tribe's unwillingness to join the Coalition."

"She believes the battle against Salem is pointless," Hillphire said. "At least, that's what Yang tells me."

"Her loyalty to her tribe is what drives her motivation more than anything," Bedivere said. "I can understand where she comes from. I, too, once held undying loyalty to my king and to Kameloth. But I do believe we can convince both her and the Maiden to join our side."

"That's assuming Salem hasn't already gotten to them the way she did with Lionheart," Glynda said. "Should we really risk that much on one Maiden?"

"The Maidens are the key to winning this war," Ozpin said. "That was the reason we kept their identities protected in the first place. Their power is too great. Couple this with the fact that only they can access the Relics and you can see that their importance is paramount."

"While it is true that the power I and Weiss bring to the table is significant," Bedivere began, "the nature of said power is still foreign to your world, and therefore, limited. The Maidens and the four Relics associated with them are tantamount to the primordial forces of your world. Should they fall into the wrong hands, I doubt even my power and that of the Shieldmaiden will be enough to stop Salem."

"Is there any opposition to this new operation?" Ironwood said.

There were no objections.

"I will go to her myself," Bedivere said, standing up. "The Silver Maiden and I will join Yang and Qrow."

"I don't know if Qrow's a good idea," Hillphire said. "Those two kinda don't like each other."

"He is family. That must count for something."

—

"I really don't think it's a good idea," Qrow said to Bedivere's proposal.

"As I told William," Bedivere said, "you are family."

"Family she doesn't like."

"I'll go with you," Tai said.

"Tai, I don't think either of us is a great idea at this point," Qrow said. "Then again, there must've been somethin' you did to sweet talk my sister all those years ago. Whatever. Okay, when do we leave?"

"Right now," Yang said, joining them with Weiss and Ruby.

"You, too?" Qrow said to Ruby, who nodded.

"The more family we have together, the better," the youngest in the group said.

"Just us, then," Weiss said. "Because if we bring too many people, they will probably run."

"Or react with hostility," Bedivere said. "This is enough. I was hoping for only four of us, but I suppose six is acceptable."

"Shuttle's ready!" Penny said, skipping to them.

"I was under the impression it would be a small party," Qrow said, eyeing all of Team JNPR and the rest of Team RWBY and Sun.

"The actual greeting party is small," Ironwood said, walking to them.

"How did I know you had something to do with this, Jimmy?"

"The two knights are much too valuable to send without protection."

Qrow laughed. "Protection? Look, I know you just barely joined us, so you couldn't possibly know what's been going on for the past months, but I'm pretty sure you've seen at least one battle in the last, oh, four weeks? Have you not seen Bedivere and Weiss kick ass out there? If anything, _they_ are the protectors."

"That is not the only reason I want to send the other teams. While you are all meeting with Raven and the Spring Maiden, the remainder of the team will sweep the entire area on a search and destroy mission."

"Wiping out all of the Grimm," Yang said.

"Correct."

"I guess that could help convince them," Tai said. "Although, honestly, this is gonna be a really tough sell. Didn't you say you already tried a while ago, Qrow?"

"Yep," Qrow said. "Oz thought I had a chance. I knew I didn't. I was right. He was wrong."

"But we have something now that we didn't before," Weiss said.

"That's right," Bedivere said. "I, too, have something I haven't had in far too long. Hope."

Weiss looked up at him. His face was devoid of any of the doubt he once harbored. It had been this way for the last month now. With every extermination sortie they conducted against the Grimm, he was slowly beginning to forget about the dark thing that existed inside of him. She looked down at Durandal, which hung at her side, giving it silent thanks for keeping her knight's light shining brightly.

"Ready to go?" Yang said, leading the way to the shuttle.

—

Bedivere and Weiss were the first to drop out of the shuttle mid-flight. The area surrounding Raven's tribe was infested with Grimm and there was no way to land without getting caught up in all of the chaos.

"Okay, we'll wait until they've cleared out most of them," Yang said. "After that, we go balls to the wall."

"So, what do we call ourselves now?" Sun said. "Since, you know, Weiss is with him and I'm on the team now."

"Team RSBY?" Nora said. "How do you even say that?"

"I'm surprised _you_ don't have any ideas," Jaune said.

"Raspberry?"

"Nora. Stop."

They watched on video feeds and through windows as Bedivere and Weiss eradicated entire swaths of Grimm. There must have been thousands down there, and yet they stood no chance against those two silver-armored machines of war.

"Bedivere!" Weiss shouted before projecting a glyph that her partner used to rocket himself into a Nevermore, slicing it right down the middle. On his way down, he called upon the power of a Cyclone Rune, sending a storm of lightning strikes down at the Grimm surrounding Weiss. She followed up with a blizzard attack, freezing a mile-wide patch of forest.

"It's too bad I forgot my coat," Bedivere said, landing beside her.

"Yeah," she said with a shiver.

He wrapped his arms around her from behind.

"Is now the time for this?" she said with a smile.

"It's always the time for this," he said.

"Of course you were gonna say that."

They went around the frozen forest, smashing frozen Grimm all around. They were almost finished when Penny landed the shuttle in the middle of a freshly melted clearing.

"You guys really weren't gonna leave any for us, were you?" Yang said, punching a frozen Beowolf in the head.

"You took too long," Weiss said with a smirk, sheathing Durandal at her side.

"Oooh, tough girl!" Ruby said sarcastically.

"Okay, it's this way," Qrow said. "The rest of you, uh, do whatever it was you came here for."

Qrow led the way with Tai and the two girls. Bedivere and Weiss remained in the rear, looking for any threats. Both were no longer in their armor.

"I wonder if we'll be able to get them to join us," Weiss said.

"I can be quite convincing," Bedivere said.

"You're not planning on kidnapping the Spring Maiden, are you?"

"Of course not! What do you think of me?"

She shrugged. "I'm just making sure."

"I plan on capturing her using no more than my natural charm and good looks."

She turned to him slowly, giving him a look of disbelief. He responded with an incredibly smooth smile, one that made her instantly swoon.

"Okay," she said, fanning herself. "Yeah, okay. I think you've got this one in the bag."

He laughed before reaching over and twining his fingers with hers.

"Here we are," Yang said, walking up to the well-hidden gate.

"Halt!" a guard said. "Who are you? And what business do you have here?"

"I'm here to see my mom."

"Mom?"

"Raven. Tell her the whole family's here to see her."

The two guards looked at one another before gesturing to someone high up in a hidden watchtower. A minute later, another guard came out through the gate and let them through. Raven and the Spring Maiden were already awaiting them at the back in front of the main tent.

"Qrow," Raven said. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Good to see you again, too, sis!" he said, spreading his arms. "How 'bout a hug for your dear brother, huh?"

She rolled her eyes.

"I think you know what we've come here for," Tai said.

"You've gotten roped in as well, have you?" Raven said to him. "You've all been so loyal to Ozpin. Blindly loyal."

"It's not Ozpin we are loyal to anymore," Yang said, stepping forward. "There are bigger things in this world than just one man or one tribe or even one kingdom. We fight for all of Remnant."

"So I've heard. And we all saw the fireworks you've caused out there just now. Thanks to you, even more Grimm will be on their way here."

"Not thanks to us," Yang said, turning to Bedivere and Weiss. "Thanks to them. And just so you know, they just wiped out _all_ of the Grimm that were stalking your camp."

Raven looked over at two scouts, who quickly left the camp to survey the surrounding forest.

"It's true, madam," Bedivere said, stepping forward before genuflecting.

"I've heard of you," Raven said. "The talk wasn't just talk after all. That proper tongue, respect, and taking a knee. You definitely are a genuine knight. Are the rumors true, then? That you and the Schnee princess have gone throughout all of Sanus and nearly caused the Grimm's extinction?"

"We just started on this continent as well," Weiss said, joining Bedivere. Unlike him, she didn't kneel.

"This is true," Bedivere said, rising. "Our goal is to free all of Remnant from the Grimm."

"And you want me to join your Coalition," Raven said. "Is that correct?"

"It is."

"What reason would I have to do this? My loyalty is to my tribe and to no other. I could easily wait for you to do what is inevitable and keep my people safe in the process."

"Because it isn't safe," Yang said. "Even with Bedivere and Weiss, the Grimm continue to spawn. They can't be everywhere at once. But the power of the Maidens and the Relics can shut away the darkness for good!"

"You believe in those fairy tales? My own daughter?"

"I used to think they were just fairy tales. But it's hard to think that way when you're living it."

Raven slowly paced. "You say you need the Maidens. Tell me, does Salem still possess the Fall Maiden?"

"She does," Ruby said. "And that's why we came to you."

"You've all come under the assumption that Salem didn't get to us first," Raven said, "that she hasn't already struck a deal with us to keep our tribe safe."

"That is correct," Bedivere said. "We wish to keep the Spring Maiden from falling into her hands as well."

"What if I were to tell you that she already has both the Summer and Winter Maidens in her possession?"

Qrow and the others exchanged glances, all except Bedivere.

"Then, all the more reason we need you on our side," Bedivere said.

"You are all fighting a losing battle," Raven said. "It is best for you to join the winning side, you know. It's easier to protect the ones you care for if you do."

"Guys," Ruby said quietly, reaching for her weapon. The surrounding warriors looked ready to engage them.

"Our battle is not a losing battle," Weiss said.

"Are you sure about that?" Vernal said as she stepped forward. "Salem has three Maidens. One refuses to side with either of you."

"So, what, then?" Qrow said. "You guys just gonna kill us all? Or do you plan on delivering us to Salem yourselves?"

"Think about the offer carefully, dear brother," Raven said.

The gates opened and a group of the bandits brought the rest of the team into the camp.

"What?" Tai said. "What's going on?"

"We knew they were out there," Raven said. "Your backup is now in here with you. What will you do now?"

"You guys are idiots," Sun said. "We were out there keeping watch over the perimeter!"

A bandit struck him on the head.

"Sun!" Blake said before another bandit restrained her as well.

"After everything that's happened," Weiss said, balling her fists. "You still want to bicker like this?"

"Finally, we get to see the fabled 'Silver Maiden' in action," Vernal said, readying herself for battle.

"Do you not realize what's at stake here?" Weiss yelled.

"Of course we do," Raven said, "and that is why I choose to protect my tribe! Vernal!"

The Spring Maiden began floating in the air as she summoned a bolt of lightning down upon the group. It struck Weiss directly.

"Weiss!" Ruby and Yang yelled.

They, along with the rest of the teams, gawked upon seeing their comrade completely unharmed. Although they had been fighting alongside her and Bedivere for the past month, this was the first time since Cinder that they witnessed her take on the strength of a Maiden. It seemed the title "Silver Maiden" was more than appropriate. Whatever power the Shieldmaiden of Bedivere's home world afforded her, it was more than a match for the Spring Maiden's power.

"Enough of this!" Weiss cried, her voice echoing throughout the entire camp as her power exploded outward onto her body, manifesting in the form of her suit of armor.

"I will be the one to test you!" Vernal said, displaying her own full power.

The raw power of the Spring Maiden was considerable indeed, but Weiss's combat prowess and her speed was far too much even for this seasoned magical warrior to take on. Bedivere crossed his arms over his chest, watching as Weiss danced circles around Vernal, even though the latter had the power of flight. He hadn't even summoned forth his armor. He didn't need to, after all.

"Why don't you draw your sword?" Vernal demanded.

"Because I'm not here to kill you," Weiss said. "I'm here to make a point!"

Weiss vanished, surprising everyone watching, everyone except for her partner, of course, who knew of all her capabilities. She reappeared behind Vernal, way too fast for the latter to counter. She was in the midst of launching herself off of a glyph.

" _Stahl Knöchel_!" Weiss yelled, increasing her offensive capabilities with the power of the Earth Rune.

The punch she delivered to Vernal's face was enough to send her flying straight through the camp's walls, carving a path of destruction in her wake. Everyone was now ready for battle when Bedivere called forth his own armor and power, holding his right arm up in the air.

"I was hoping we'd be able to do this without violence," he said as his hand began to glow bright blue. "But perhaps there is no choice in the matter."

"Wait!" Yang cried out. "Bedivere!"

" _Regen der Restaurierung_!"

Everyone present expected some vastly destructive form of magic, but instead they all felt a strange healing sensation, as if a life-bringing rain were falling on every person present. Furthermore, their spirits were lifted somewhat, hope washing over every soul.

"What the?" Tai said, holding his hands out to catch the magical rain, which wasn't wet or cold. It was simply refreshing.

"It doesn't taste like anything," Ruby said.

"Ruby!" Yang said. "Stop drinking random things falling out of the sky!"

"You, too, Nora!" Jaune said.

She looked at him and Ren, who were staring at her in disbelief. "What?" she said. "It tastes good."

"My scanners indicate that this is not normal rain," Penny said. "At least, not what we would consider rain. It is not composed of any matter at all. It's purely energy."

"Magic rain," Blake said.

Vernal floated back into the camp, standing next to Raven. Her wounds had also been fully healed by Bedivere's magic.

"Are you convinced yet?" Weiss said, allowing her armor to vanish.

"You're letting your guard down?" Vernal said. "I could easily finish you without your armor."

"Then, go ahead. Bedivere and I didn't come all the way out here to start a war. We intend on finishing the one Salem began. If you won't join us, then we'll do it ourselves. _Somebody_ has to stand up for Remnant, for the people. If you won't, then I will. I am the Shieldmaiden for a reason."

They watched as she turned her back to them, heading toward Bedivere, whose armor was also gone. From what Raven and Vernal could tell, she really had let her guard down, putting her own life in their hands. Although, it wasn't a stretch to think that she could react quickly enough against any threat anyway.

"C'mon," Weiss said to Bedivere and the rest of their group. "Let's get out of here. We've wasted our time with your mom, Yang."

"I wouldn't say it was a complete waste," Ruby said. "I mean, that little fight was awesome."

Raven gave the order to her tribe to let them go.

"Why would you let them escape like this?" Vernal asked her.

"Everyone, pack your belongings," Raven said aloud.

"What? Why?"

"We're going to Mistral."


	45. Chapter XLV

CHAPTER XLV

 _Vorbereitungen für den Endkonflikt_

"Your guess wasn't wrong," Raven said as she joined the Coalition Council aboard Ironwood's command ship, which floated over Mistral along with the rest of the fleet. "Salem did get to us first. That's why all of those Grimm were surrounding our camp."

"To keep an eye on you," Winter said.

"That's right. She made us an offer. Then, you guys came and did the same thing. After I saw not only that girl's power, but also her resolve, I decided that it would be in my tribe's best interests to join you in the fight."

"Ozpin's already with Vernal to get the Knowledge Relic from Haven," Glynda said.

"You know," Sun began, "I hate to always be 'that guy', but what if this is part of Salem's plan? No disrespect meant to you, Yang's Mom, but we barely know you and we don't know what you're thinking, plus you guys attacked Weiss and tried to kill me and my friends."

"No need to apologize," Bedivere said. "There's a reason I requested you to represent Vacuo. It was not because there was no one else, but because of your doubts and questions. You have noticed that you and Hillphire are also the youngest on this Council, have you not?"

"That was another question I had," he said.

"Wisdom is necessary to lead. However, I have learned that so is youth and hope and innocence, something you and Hillphire still possess."

"Yes," Ironwood said, "as much as I hate to admit it, there is a use for naivety."

"I guess there's a use for dickheads on a military council, too," Sun mumbled as he sighed.

"I'm sorry, what was that? You'll need to speak up."

"I said, I'm glad we can get along, General Ironwood."

"You have nothing to worry about, Sun Wukong," Bedivere said before turning to Raven. "I have faith in the newest member of this Coalition."

—

"You down here to keep an eye on me or something?" Vernal said as she, Ozpin, and Weiss headed to the chamber with Lionheart and Qrow.

"Call it academic curiosity," Weiss said.

"You're also going around without your armor. Do you trust me that much already?"

"It's a sign of goodwill. But I should probably warn you. If you try anything stupid like stab me in the back, Durandal will replace your spine in less time than you can blink."

"Tough talk, princess."

"What did Salem offer you guys, anyway? It must not have been all that wonderful if you decided to join us instead of her."

Vernal didn't answer.

"She must have had something to offer you. I'm guessing it was a promise to keep your tribe safe in return for your cooperation. It was the same with Professor Lionheart before we rescued him from Watts and his crew."

They stood in front of the chamber to the Relic.

"Oh, I know," Weiss said. "She probably got you to agree to open this door so that someone among our group, who we'd never suspect, could grab the Relic and make a break for it. Am I right?"

Vernal gave her a wry look and Weiss smiled back. "If you've figured out that much," she said, "why would you tell me about it?"

"Well, like I said, sword, spine, all that jazz."

"You really are confident in your abilities, aren't you?"

"Just as you were holding back to keep from annihilating your village, I held back to keep from making the continent disappear."

Weiss's smug grin was gone, replaced by a serious look that told Vernal she wasn't a girl to be messed with. And from the tempo of their small fight back at the encampment, she could tell she wasn't bluffing.

"For the record," Vernal said as she followed Ozpin's instructions, "Salem did try and get us to do something like that. And it was supposed to be Raven in here who would grab the Relic and use her Semblance to get out. But it was Raven herself who said no. Because she really does believe in you guys. I don't know what the hell it is about you and that knight in shining armor, but if it was enough to make Raven believe in you, then I'm in all the way."

"You're really loyal to her, aren't you?" Weiss said.

"We're all loyal to each other and only each other."

"I can understand that. That's how I feel about my friends. We've been fighting against the Grimm together for so long now that I don't think I could trust anyone else."

Vernal turned to her. "So, what, are we gonna turn into BFFs and paint our nails together and go shopping and stuff?"

"Maybe after all of this is done. Ruby's been trying to get me to do that stuff forever."

Vernal let out a chuckle. "You guys are such children."

Weiss watched as the doors to the Relic chamber opened. "I stopped being a child a long time ago."

—

The Coalition Council was still in the midst of discussion when Bedivere closed his eyes. Weiss was calling him. Everyone in the room watched with mouths open as he dematerialized, vanishing into a cloud of twinkling silver, gold, and blue particles that dissipated into nothingness.

"What?" Sun said.

"The heck?" Hillphire said.

"Just happened?" Winter said.

Meanwhile, Bedivere had rematerialized right beside Weiss, surprising everyone in the Chamber of Knowledge.

"Wait, what?" Qrow said. "How did you? What? When?"

"Have you forgotten my Semblance?" Bedivere said.

"Connection, right? To Weiss?"

He nodded.

"That allows you to...to teleport?"

"Only to her. When she summons me, I answer the call."

Weiss looked at him and smiled.

"So, what exactly are you doing here?" Vernal asked him.

"We've been trying to open this vault in order to retrieve the Relic of Knowledge," Ozpin said. "This Relic will allow us to know the entrance to Salem's world, which does not exist in this plane."

"It's similar to the World of Shadow of my own home planet," Bedivere said. "Except that there is a very specific entrance."

"At least for a full scale invasion. It seems she and her followers are capable of entering and leaving her realm at will, or at least by her own will, but the main gate, so to speak, is as of yet undiscovered."

"And this Relic is gonna let you guys know where that gate is?" Vernal said.

"That and more. It will show us how to finally defeat her."

"Why hasn't anyone used this in the past?" Qrow said.

"Because no human being can handle the vast powers of any Relic," Lionheart said. "Knowledge is a useful tool, but if one is not ready to handle it, it will drive that person insane."

"Which is why I am here," Bedivere said.

"Wait," Vernal said, "you are gonna take the Relic into yourself?"

"Not alone. I can handle the Relic on my own just fine, but I would end up being useless to all of you on the battlefield with that kind of burden." He turned to Weiss. "Are you ready?"

"We already talked about this last night," she said. "I'm not turning back."

"You two," Vernal said. "I don't think I'll ever get you."

"There's nothing to get," Weiss said as she and Bedivere held hands, walking to the Relic together.

With their free hands, they reached out, taking hold of the object as one. The knowledge from the Relic began to flow into both of them simultaneously, equally distributing itself between them. Had either of them attempted to absorb all of this knowledge alone, it would have been debilitating, but splitting it all between the two of them made it possible to remain functional while benefiting from the knowledge. Bedivere's Connection Semblance with Weiss made it so that functionally the knowledge from the Relic would remain intact between them without overburdening either.

They both stepped back from the glowing Relic, panting as they saw, heard, and knew everything about Remnant. The knowledge of all things, from the distant past to the here and now, flowed through their united being.

"In the beginning," Bedivere began.

"There were two brothers," Weiss continued.

"The light."

"And the dark."

"The dark sought to destroy the creations of the light."

"But the light never stopped creating."

"Eventually, they came to an understanding."

"Leaving humankind with the tools necessary to flourish."

"Even as the Grimm continued to threaten them."

"The Relics became."

"As the physical representations of Knowledge."

"Choice."

"Creation."

"And Destruction."

"And their keys were the Maidens."

"The physical embodiments of the seasons."

"And of magic itself."

"The source of all Dust."

"And of all existence."

"What about Salem's realm?" Qrow said.

They both turned to him.

"Salem is the embodiment of the second coming of the dark brother," Weiss said.

"Just as Ozpin is the light brother's second coming," Bedivere said.

"Her domain is separated from ours."

"By no more than a thin veil."

"Which is thinnest."

"At the continent."

"To the north."

"Of Vale."

Vernal rolled her eyes. "This whole finishing sentences thing is really cute," she said, "but also really creepy."

"It's because the knowledge is split between them," Ozpin said. "Just as Lionheart said, none of the Relics can be handled by any one person. The weight would crush any soul."

"So, it's probably a good idea not to touch that glowing...thing, right? What the hell is it anyway?"

"A physical representation as close as possible to the concept of Knowledge," Lionheart said. "It doesn't look like anything because it isn't really anything. It is a concept that has materialized into something vaguely real."

"We should go," Bedivere said, letting go of Weiss's hand and breaking the connection. "We know exactly where we need to strike."

"And we've gotta act now," Weiss said, "before Salem can make her next move."

—

Ruby joined the rest of the teams at Beacon's cafeteria. Nora's plate was piled higher than anyone else's, as usual. She took a seat between Weiss and Penny.

"You know what I think?" Jaune said.

"What do you think, Jaune?" Ren asked.

"I think we should have a rematch."

"Rematch?" Weiss said.

"Wait," Yang said. "Are you suggesting...?"

Nora let a sinister grin form on her face, tossing a cherry tomato up and down as she eyed the table across from them.

"A rematch would mean us going against each other again," Blake said, "not starting a new war with another team."

Ruby snickered. "I think this one's better," she said. "Teams RWBY and JNPR against Bedivere, Hillphire, Sun, Hollie, Oscar, Winter, Qrow, and Dad."

"Too bad Blake's parents aren't here," Yang said. "I wanna see how he handles an alliance with her boyfriend."

Blake reddened. "Look," she said.

They all turned to her.

"Never mind."

"C'mon, Blake!" Ruby said. "We all know you love him!"

She turned even more red. "Guys."

"Blake?" Weiss said with a smile.

She let out a heavy sigh before picking up a pie from the table to throw at the others. She nailed Hollie right in the face.

"That is _not_ who I was aiming for!" Blake said.

"You...traitor!" Hollie screamed. "This means _war_!"

Compared to the last time, this battle was one to be recorded in the history books. The other Huntsmen and Huntresses vacated quickly, having heard of their previous food war, which had transformed into all-out food genocide.

"Let's see how you do against this!" Winter yelled, hurling several tomatoes at Weiss, who leaped in the air to counter with a roll of bread, engaging her sister in a duel. She found herself face-to-face against both Winter and Bedivere.

"Hello, Weiss," Bedivere said, resting a long loaf of bread on top of his shoulder.

"So," Weiss said. "You're allying yourself with my sister against me, huh?"

"Don't worry," Jaune said, joining her. "I got your back."

She glanced at him with a smile. "Knights against knights."

"Prepare yourselves!" Winter said, leading the attack.

"Heh," Qrow said, standing next to Tai as they faced off against Ruby and Yang. "You think you can take us on, huh?"

"Bring it, old man!" Yang said as she and Ruby attacked with their own culinary weaponry.

The last to break off into a skirmish were Penny and Blake against Hillphire and Oscar, joined shortly by Ren, Nora, Hollie, and Sun.

"C'mon, team!" Penny said to her group. "Let's show them what we're made of!"

"We will not be overcome!" Hollie said, standing atop a castle made of tables.

"Hey!" Nora yelled. "I'm queen of the castle, not you!"

"We'll see about that!"

Last time, it was four against four, no more than Team RWBY vs. Team JNPR. Today was Armageddon, with all of Team RWBY and Team JNPR against Bedivere, Hollie, Hillphire, Sun, Oscar, Winter, Qrow, and Tai. The mini-duels throughout the cafeteria only lasted so long, ultimately breaking down into one giant melee, with constant partner swapping and three-on-one match-ups that would be broken up into pairs again before transforming into trios and quads and back into pairs.

"You think you have what it takes?" Winter announced, standing atop their side's table castle beside Bedivere.

"We have _more_ than what it takes!" Weiss said, standing on their side's castle. "We have punch!"

"Punch!" several on their side echoed as they loaded up a number of water guns with punch and milk and everything else they could get their hands on.

"What the hell?" Sun said. "Where did they get water guns?"

"Don't worry!" Hillphire said, tossing their own water guns to the team. "We've got the perfect counter!"

"Load 'em up!" Qrow said as he and Tai passed around the water guns and tubs of punch and other drinks.

There were several tables and other forms of cover scattered throughout the cafeteria and the giant war had somehow organized into a capture-the-flag situation, where the "flags" were none other than Weiss and Bedivere, who weren't allowed to fight back as they were "taken hostage."

"Ren! Nora!" Jaune shouted. "Watch the left flank!"

"We're on it!" Ren said.

"Fire in the hole!" Sun yelled as he tossed a balloon filled with punch. Blake managed to shoot it out of the air with a stick of celery, popping it and sending a shower of red over Sun and Hollie.

"Son of a!" Hollie said, taking aim at Blake and splashing her with punch. "Take that!"

"Gotcha!" Yang said, shooting at Hollie as well, soaking her clothes even more.

"Penny!" Weiss said.

"Already on it!" Penny said as she used her floating swords to knock several cans of punch at the opposing team, who were forced to take shelter behind cover to avoid the shower of liquid.

"Hey!" Ruby said to Yang. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Yeah!" Yang said. "Let's go!"

"Weiss!"

Sensing her teammates' intentions, Weiss projected a glyph toward where Ruby and Yang were standing. The power of her glyph combined with Ruby's Semblance sent them rocketing across the room and they were next to Bedivere in an instant.

"Don't get the wrong idea," Yang said to him with a smirk as she and Ruby took hold of either of his arms.

"I've always fantasized having two beautiful sisters to either side of me," he said, returning her smirk.

"Oh, gosh," Ruby said, rolling her eyes.

"Don't let them take the flag!" Hillphire yelled, opening fire with several others.

"I'm not just some flag, you know!" Bedivere whined.

Blake joined Ren and Nora in giving Yang and Ruby cover while Penny and Jaune stayed to protect Weiss.

"Hey!" Hollie yelled. "You're letting Blake through!"

"Why are you blaming us?" Qrow said as he and Tai reloaded their water guns.

Oscar was the last one to attempt a valiant rescue of their flag, but he took a hit right in the face from a pie Yang had kicked up off the floor.

"Man," he said, wiping the filling off his face.

"Nice try, though!" Ruby said with a smile.

"C'mon!" Sun said, leading the charge to retrieve Bedivere.

"Ruby!" Yang said, letting go of Bedivere to engage with Sun and Hillphire, who were in hot pursuit.

With the last of her strength, Ruby activated her Semblance once more, hauling Bedivere all the way to Weiss, who caught him as Ruby continued beyond, the force of her flight toppling the castle of tables as she smacked full-force into the wall.

"Whoa!" Weiss said as she and Bedivere fell to the ground. He just barely managed to catch her as they hit the floor.

"Oh, wow," Yang said. "So the enemy flag catches our flag? Huh?"

Bedivere and Weiss chuckled together as he let her down on the ground.

"This again?" Glynda's voice echoed throughout the mess hall.

They all straightened up as Glynda used her Semblance to restore the cafeteria. Following after her were Ironwood, the Belladonnas, Raven, and Vernal.

"Looks like we missed out," Vernal said, to which Kali chuckled.

"Schnee," Ironwood said. "I expected more out of you."

"Sir!" she said, standing straight.

"With all due respect," Bedivere said, stepping forward, "this is our final day to rest. I would like to ask that you give your subordinates a little more slack."

"Perhaps slack is what led to our current quandary," Ironwood said. "You don't seem to understand what it means to run an army."

"An army of robots? Or an army of knights, foot soldiers, archers, mages, templar, paladins, siege infantry, dragoons, men and women who volunteered to leave behind their homes and families and their peaceful ways of life in order to take up arms and defend their country and everything they believed in? Men and women whom others would accuse of having thrown away their lives? Men and women who had paid the ultimate sacrifice in order to serve their fellow man? Is that what you mean, General Ironwood?"

He didn't respond.

"Perhaps you are right. Perhaps I do not know how to lead such people. After all, it is because of me that—"

"That all of Albion was united into a single country," Weiss interrupted him, "that the Frankish Kingdom was similarly reunited, that peace was brought to the Persian Empire, that trade routes were established across the breadth of Ecumene. General Ironwood, if there is anyone here who knows how to lead not just an army, but an entire country, Sir Bedivere, High Templar of Albion, is that man."

"I agree with Weiss," Hillphire said. "I've seen him in battle, not just as a soldier, but as a leader, as an inspirer."

"As useful as my Semblance can be," Hollie added, "he's capable of lifting our spirits just by leading from the front."

"It's because of him that we are where we are today," Weiss said. "On the brink of victory."

"Weiss," Bedivere said quietly, but she quickly shut him down with a light tap to his side.

"If it weren't for him," Weiss continued, "a lot of us wouldn't be here today. He saved Mistral and Vale, _and_ prevented a war between the kingdoms."

Ironwood watched Bedivere, who said nothing. "Perhaps I still have a lot to learn, then," he said. "I apologize for my rude remarks."

"No apology necessary, General Ironwood," Bedivere said. "We both run our armies in different ways for our own reasons."

"You all heard him," Ironwood addressed the whole group. "This is our final day of rest. Use it wisely."

—

"You didn't have to do that, you know," Bedivere said, following Weiss into the dorms.

"Do what?" she said without looking at him.

"Standing up for me. You didn't have to."

"Of course I did. You were about to go on your stupid tirade about how you caused the crap that happened back on your home world."

"But it's—"

"Irrelevant. Because you're here now and you're doing so much good." She stopped and turned around to face him. "Could you for once let go of your damn past?"

He looked away from her, but she grabbed him by the face and turned him right back to her before planting a deep kiss on his lips.

"I just can't bear it every time you punish yourself like this," she said, shedding a single tear. "It's not just your Semblance. It's...I feel it, right down here."

"Weiss..."

She put a finger to his lips, kissing the corner of his mouth and then his strong jaw and his neck. She stared into his hazel eyes for a little bit before pulling him by the collar to his room, which was here on the bottom level of the building. She locked the door behind as she led him in.

He watched as she took her coat off and draped it over his desk chair. He didn't resist as she removed his coat as well, kissing him while she unbuttoned his shirt. He took hold of her hand as she moved down to his belt, staring into her pale blue eyes for a long time.

"What are you doing?" he asked her quietly.

She was blushing, panting as she stepped away from him and faced the other direction. That was a good question. What exactly was she doing? She turned to him again. He stood in the same spot, his shirt fully unbuttoned, his bare chest and abdomen visible. She took one step toward him before stopping, putting a closed hand to her chest, over which hung the locket he had given her. She held the pendant in her hand, closing her eyes, before removing it and placing it on the dresser to her right.

"Weiss," he whispered.

The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. That was all it took for him to arouse her. She found herself face to face with him again, slowly pulling off his shirt as she kissed his chest and arms, making her way up to his face.

She unhooked both their belts, leaning Caliburn and Durandal against the wall together. Next to come off were her shoes. And then his shoes. She was in the middle of undoing her dress when he stopped her.

"Slow down," he whispered into her ear as he wrapped his arms around her from behind. "We have all night."

She closed her eyes as she leaned back against him, cradled by his powerful arms. His strength and resolve gave her all the courage she needed to keep going on. She couldn't believe how far they had come since their first day together. He had appeared as nothing more than a summoning gone wrong. But now she knew that it didn't go wrong at all. It was meant to be. What was happening now had been ordained before time even began.

"I love you, Bedivere," Weiss said, kissing his forearm.

"And I you," he whispered back. "I am yours for all Eternity. Nothing can change that. Never will I leave you. Never will I forsake you."

She closed her eyes. She wished tonight could last until the end of time. In a way, it did. It was a night that would forever be etched into the stone tablets of history, a night of two worlds reaching out beyond the void and becoming one.


	46. Chapter XLVI

CHAPTER XLVI

 _Morgendämmerung_

Weiss opened her eyes to the dawn light hitting her face. She moved her hand to Bedivere's, which was draped on her bare abdomen. He moved his other hand to play with her hair.

"You've been awake," she said quietly.

"I have," he said. "I wanted to watch you sleep for a while longer."

"How long?"

"Enough to realize just how beautiful you truly are."

She turned around to face him, burying herself in his chest. The feeling of his bare skin against her own made her warm, complete. She closed her eyes as he lightly ran his finger along the length of her back, from her neck all the way down.

She kissed his chest once, and then once more, and then again before moving up to his lips. She kissed him for a long time, but not long enough. She wanted to stay like this forever, to tell the sun to go back to sleep so that they could prolong their night in each other's arms.

"How are you feeling?" he asked her.

"I've never felt so good in my life," she said with a smile.

"I'm glad."

She pulled him on top of herself as he lay beneath him, looking up into his hazel eyes.

"I love you so much," she said.

He kissed her on the lips before moving to her neck and to her shoulder. She closed her eyes, taking in every touch. He moved down, kissing her on the abdomen before resting his head on her.

"I love you, too," he whispered, his breath tickling her skin.

He reached up and found her hand, lacing his fingers with hers. She rested her other hand on her forehead. His free hand began exploring the rest of her, the gentle touches shooting lightning and fire throughout her entire body. Every hair was standing on end by the time his fingers came back to where they started.

She caught herself moaning with the sheer pleasure of his touches against her naked body. He climbed back up to level with her, placing a kiss on her lips. She pulled him down onto herself, enjoying the weight of his body against hers. He began to nibble on her ear and she tensed up, breathing heavily. His mouth made its way down to her neck again and she couldn't help but let out a tiny shriek.

"We should probably get going," he whispered into her ear.

"I don't wanna leave yet," she whispered back into his own ear as she grasped a handful of his hair. "Please, can we just stay here for a little longer?"

He smiled, kissing her ear. "If that is what you wish."

—

"So," Ruby said as she joined the teams in the locker rooms to get ready for launch. "Has anyone else noticed that we're missing two people?"

"I haven't seen them leave the dorm," Blake said.

"Hell, I haven't seen them leave his room," Yang said.

Ruby gasped. "Do you think...?"

"Without a doubt," Nora said.

"Yup," Ren said.

"Definitely," Jaune said.

"Guys," Penny said, "shouldn't we be minding our own business?"

"Psh," Hollie said. "Anything that happens between those two _is_ our business. You know how it is being a celebrity and stuff."

"I agree with Penny," Hillphire said. "Their business is their business. Not ours."

"I dunno about that, man," Sun said. "Their relationship has been pretty public."

"And now it's _pubic_ , if ya know what I mean," Yang said with a snicker.

There was a collective sigh throughout the locker room.

"Yang," Oscar said.

"What up?" she said.

"Just, never mind."

The door opened and everyone looked. Bedivere and Weiss walked in, laughing softly to one another as she pulled him in by the hand. Both were barefoot. Weiss was dressed only in her nightgown and Bedivere in a pair of shorts.

"I'm feeling really weird," Ruby said, shivering as she loaded up her scythe and stowed it behind her.

"I did pick up on a slight increase in your blood pressure," Penny said. "Did you have a lot of salty food to eat for breakfast?"

"I don't think diet's the reason she's feeling weird," Blake said. She felt something furry brush past her cheek. She looked over at Sun, who was smiling at her. She fought the urge to smack him, returning his smile instead.

Yang gave Blake a light elbow on the side as she passed by her. "So," she said quietly, "have you and Sun, well, you know?"

"Yang, that's none of your business," Blake whispered quickly, slamming her locker door shut before tightening her sword strap.

"Of course it's my business. Us natural blondes gotta look out for each other, you know?"

"Then, why don't you bug Jaune and Ruby about it, huh?"

"No. No, no, no. Ruby's not allowed to grow up."

"Hey, kid," Qrow said as he, Raven, and Tai walked up to Sun.

"Hey, old man," Sun greeted back.

"Psh. I'm-a smack you upside the head if you keep doing that."

"He's right, though," Tai said. "You _are_ old."

"You swear as if you're _not_ the same age."

"Okay, that's enough," Raven said.

"Yeah, anyway," Qrow continued, "my sister and brother-in-law and I were wondering if you think you're man enough to help us reconstitute Team STRQ."

Sun glanced over at Blake and the rest of her team, who were smiling as they finished prepping up. He turned back to Qrow.

"I mean," he said, scratching his head. "If you guys think you could use a Faunus on your team, then yeah, why not?"

"I've seen you fight," Raven said. "You might not be as strong or as experienced as the rest of us, but every time you speak up on the Council, I feel like you can bring something fresh to the team."

"That and your ingenuity," Tai said. "We haven't seen anyone improvise as well as you can."

Sun placed his hands on his hips. "Well, I do gotta admit I _am_ pretty good."

"He's got the attitude to be on the team," Raven said with an eye-roll.

"All right, then," Qrow said. "Team STRQ is officially back together. You better do good, too, cuz you know what that first letter position means."

"I ain't gonna let y'all down," Sun said.

Ruby turned to the ground. A hand placed itself on her shoulder and she looked up into her sister's face.

"I miss her, too," Yang said.

Ruby wrapped her arms around her sister and the latter returned the embrace. "I wish she could see us now," she said, failing to fight off a tear.

Yang wiped the tear away. "She'd be damn proud of us. Especially you, Ruby."

"You think you're ready for this?" Ren said to Nora.

She turned to him before smiling. "As long as we've got each other, we can take on the world," she said. "Isn't that what you told me?"

He smiled back. "Yeah. But it's not just you and me anymore." He looked around at the entire group. "We've got everyone."

She nodded before taking his hand in hers. "We're not alone anymore."

"You're damn right you're not alone," Jaune said, joining them with Penny. "Team JNPR stands together, right alongside Team RWBY, Team STRQ, and all the free agents."

"Yup!" Penny said. "As long as we all stick together, we can't be beat!"

Weiss looked over at the rest of the teams as she and Bedivere got their clothes ready. She smiled to herself, thinking about how far they'd come in such a short time. Not only were they ready for this, it was all coming to a close.

"I'm going to take a shower," Bedivere said, throwing a towel and a pair of boxers over his shoulder.

"We're about to go into battle, though," Weiss said.

"Yes, and I do not wish to enter into battle smelling like we just made love all night and all morning."

She instantly turned bright red. "You don't have to say that so casually and so loudly!" she whispered.

"Are you embarrassed by it?"

"No! Well, yes! A little!"

He gave her a smile before heading to the showers. His thoughts pierced the air and entered her mind.

 _You are free to join me if you wish._

She began breathing hard.

"Weiss, are you okay?" Ruby asked her.

She jumped as she turned around. "Ruby! Yes! Yes, I'm okay!"

"I'm just making sure because you're panting and you're all red. Did something happen between you and Bedivere?"

"Yeah, I mean besides what we all know already happened," Yang said with a grin. Blake gave her a light elbow to the side.

"No! Nothing happened!" Weiss said. "Nothing bad, anyway!"

"Weiss, uh," Blake said. "You have exclamation points flying out of your head, in case you didn't notice."

"What are you talking about!"

"That."

"Wha!" After a moment, she reached into her locker, grabbing a towel and a bathrobe before heading to the showers.

"Hey, uh," Ruby said, "didn't Bedivere go that way, too?"

Yang wrapped an arm around her sister, leading her away. "He did, and you're going this way because you're not allowed to grow up."

"Ew! Are they gonna shower together?"

"Shh!" Blake said as she and Yang ushered her out of the locker room.

—

The entire battle fleet approached the northwestern continent from Vale, following the directions Bedivere and Weiss had given them. The route they were headed along would offer the least resistance against their advance. Their target was in the very center of the landmass, deep within Grimm-infested territory.

"We are likely to encounter Omega Grimm as well," Winter said as the teams readied themselves for drop. "Air support will be focused mostly on aerial Grimm while we take care of business on the ground."

"You're coming with us?" Weiss asked.

"Of course. I won't let my younger sister outdo me on the battlefield."

Weiss smiled.

"Are you well-rested?"

She nodded. "Ready for battle at any time."

"Good."

Weiss watched as Winter went from group to group, individual warrior to individual warrior, checking up on their morale and readiness for battle. This was a leader she could follow into the mouth of hell itself. It wasn't surprising that she was the one to break away from the main Atlas fleet and lend her support to the defense of Mistral and Vale.

"You've gotten to that level yourself," Bedivere said. "Look at everyone around us."

He was right. It wasn't just her team and their close friends. Everyone looked to her just as much as they looked to Winter and Bedivere. They had all seen the strength and determination of the Silver Maiden. That's what gave them the will to fight.

"Okay," Hillphire said, stepping into the launch bay as Winter readied herself. "Just like before, you guys will lead from the front. Team RWBY, JNPR, STRQ, and Bedivere's Team will commence the assault, to be supported by other Huntsman teams and Coalition battle groups. As always, I'll be the one giving you guys direct support while Ironwood and the staff coordinate the rest of the battle."

"You won't be fighting alongside us?" Penny asked him.

He shook his head, smiling at her. "My place is up here, but that doesn't mean I won't be fighting. You guys remember what happened during the Beacon Liberation Campaign."

"You think something like that might happen here?" Jaune asked him.

"Here's hoping nothing like that happens. Unless we're talking someone else's hidden power awakening." He and several others looked at Ruby.

"What are all of you looking at me for?" she said.

"Nothing," Ren chuckled.

"Just wondering what happened to those powers you used to freeze that big Dragon Grimm," Nora said.

"Hey, I don't even know how that happened, okay?" Ruby said.

"Let's keep it that way," Tai said, catching the attention of Qrow, Oscar, and Raven.

"Oscar, you're coming with us?" Ruby asked him.

"Yeah," he said, holding his cane in his hand. "After everything we've been through, I don't think it would be right for me to just sit on the sidelines."

"LZ's coming up," Vernal said, looking out the window.

"Are you sure it's all right having her with us?" Jaune asked Weiss and Bedivere.

"Yeah," Weiss said. "Like Bedivere said, the power of the Maiden isn't something to be taken lightly. And if Salem really does have the Winter and Summer Maidens along with Cinder, then we're gonna need Vernal more than ever."

"Besides that," Bedivere said, "this is her destiny as much as it is ours."

"I know you guys are talking about me," Vernal said, giving the others a smirk.

"Of course we are," Bedivere said as he joined her. "Just as you've been thinking about us."

"I'm just trying to figure out what kind of shit I got myself into."

"You didn't get yourself into anything. It was fate that brought all of us together."

"Yeah, I don't believe in that crap."

"Our belief in it does not matter. You fled from your responsibilities as the Spring Maiden, forsook your training, left behind everything, and now where are you?"

"How would you know, though? You were born and raised as a knight, as a nobleman and all that shit."

He chuckled. "I was raised an orphan, brought into the priesthood by a generous master. It wasn't until my king made a decree nullifying the old laws against those of us who had magic coursing through our veins that I became what I am now. I was not born a knight. I only became one later in life, a course decided for me by Fate itself. I had the privilege and honor of playing a major part in reuniting all of Albion."

"Yeah, well, I never wanted any of that."

"Think of it this way. Just as Raven has chosen to fight in order to protect your people, so, too, are you fighting today to protect them. It was the same as when I chose to stand up for my own people, those who were born with magic."

She looked over at Weiss, who was walking to them as well.

"What about you, Princess?" Vernal said. "Did you choose to do this?"

"I choose to stand up for people who cannot stand for themselves," Weiss said, not a hint of doubt in her voice.

"Is that Weiss Schnee talking, or the Shieldmaiden?"

"Both. I am Weiss Schnee, the Shieldmaiden of Remnant."

"All right," Hillphire said, heading back in the direction of the bridge. "It's show time!"

Weiss and Bedivere summoned their armor to the surface before letting themselves fall out of the open launch bay.

"I guess the W in RWBY stands for Winter?" Ruby said.

"I can live with that," Winter said before jumping out.

"Great, now we don't even have a W anymore."

"Then, we'd better catch up to them!" Yang said, leaping out just after Blake.

"Weee!" both Nora and Penny cheered as they fell out together.

"Dude, did we really just let them beat us?" Jaune said, to which Ren chuckled before leaping out after the rest of their team.

—

"This is it," Hillphire said as he monitored their progress from the command ship's bridge.

The assault had already begun. More Grimm than they had ever seen before were now swarming them from every direction, both on land and in the air, but that would not stop them from reaching their goal. Their target was at the very center of the continent, the point on the landmass farthest away from the surrounding ocean. This was where the veil between this world and Salem's realm was thinnest, the point from where their armies could enter and finally take her down.

"Send troops to respond to the Grimm to the east," Ironwood said to one of his commanders. "Have two of our battleships engage the flying Grimm in support of the ground forces in the same area."

"Faunus support teams," Ghira said to his men, "escort the android troops and the Huntsmen in the west. The rest of you, maintain your current heading. Our goal is that ruin in the middle of that desert."

Hollie walked over to Hillphire, who was intently examining the battle maps, which were showing real-time data on troop progression.

"It's like a game, huh?" she said.

"This is no game," Hillphire said, his heart pounding. "This is real life, with real people who will die if I fail."

She placed a hand on his shoulder before singing a quiet song. He closed his eyes, allowing her calming voice to ease his soul.

"Thank you," he said before continuing on his task. "We're going to be recalling some of the troops soon for you to take care of. Are you up to it?"

"We're all-in now, aren't we?"

—

Bedivere sent Team STRQ back to the command ship, which was hovering low with a number of other ships in order to treat the wounded and re-supply their forces.

"You've done enough work for a time," the knight said to them.

"You calling us old?" Qrow said.

"All of your ages combined still don't come close to my age, so don't worry. I simply don't want you burning out before we even get close to the ruins."

"What does our team leader say?" Raven said, turning to Sun.

"Let's go get a quick rest," he said. "We'll be back in half an hour."

"An assertive leader," Tai said. "That's what I'm talkin' about."

Raven chuckled before following the rest of the team to the command ship. Bedivere turned to Weiss, who had just landed beside him.

"How are you doing?" she asked him.

"I was going to say the same," he said with a chuckle.

"I can keep going forever. You?"

He nodded before turning to Oscar, who was fighting through countless Grimm on his own, with Vernal not that far away.

"The Wizard and one of his Maidens," Bedivere mumbled. "Let's go join the rest of our team, then, shall we?"

—

"Nora! Penny! Cover!" Jaune said before rushing in with Ren while the two girls provided artillery support fire.

"Something tells me this is more dangerous," Ren said as grenades and cannon shells struck Grimm to either side of them.

"Psh. What, you don't trust in your girlfriend's aim?"

"It's not her aim I worry about. It's her excitability."

"Hah!"

—

"Team RWBY!" Winter said before projecting glyphs behind the entire group to propel them at a giant Deathstalker, which they destroyed with a single, coordinated strike.

"Nice!" Ruby said, reloading her scythe.

"I was gonna say 'Weiss'," Yang said.

"But she's not here," Blake said.

"Eh, Winter's just as good!" Ruby said.

"I appreciate that," Winter said to her.

"Looks like Jaune's team is having some trouble," Yang said. "Let's go help them out!"

—

"Much better?" Hollie said, taking Qrow's empty water bottle.

"Much better," he said. "Although, you know what would make things perfect?"

She smiled before pulling out her guitar and strumming along as she sang loud enough for everybody in the camp to hear.

"I had heard about this Semblance of hers," Raven said to Tai. "But this is my first time experiencing it for myself."

"Yeah, she's something," Tai said. "Maybe that's why your bro's head over heels for her."

"He's always been such a cradle robber."

"Don't forget to take it slow," Qrow said to Hollie as she finished singing. "You don't wanna pass out again like last time."

"Well, if it means falling into your arms again," she began, "I might just have to ignore your advice."

"Oh, jeez."

"I'm joking! Anyway, yeah, I know to take it easy. This battle's gonna be a long one. The Grimm don't seem to be letting up at all."

"They're all trying to avoid the knight and his princess. But they can't really do anything to get away from them."

"Yeah. It seems like she got faster _and_ stronger when she became the Shieldmaiden."

"It's like Sun said. We have two Bediveres."

"Yeah, one with boobs, and the other with—"

"Okay!"

"I heard that!" Sun said, joining them and giving Hollie a high-five.

"Too bad Blake's not here to smack both of you," Qrow said.

"Speaking of her," Hollie said, noting Team RWBY and JNPR returning from the battle along with Oscar and Vernal.

"Pace yourselves," Raven said as she and Tai went to replace them. "Even you, Vernal."

"Yes, ma'am," the Spring Maiden said.

"Even with your powers, you still aren't invincible."

"Those two seem to be, though."

Team STRQ stood at the top of the ramp that led back down to the ground. They watched as Bedivere and Weiss put on a magnificent light show, projecting all sorts of magical phenomena everywhere at the same time as they slashed and stabbed their way through the battlefield with their legendary swords.

—

"Okay, I think it's time for you to use it," Bedivere said.

"Do you think it'll actually work, though?" Weiss said, standing back to back with him.

"If not, we just continue to do what we've been doing."

"But still. That spell takes a lot out of me."

"I'll be right here with you."

She gave him a look. He was smiling at her. That was all she needed and all of a sudden it was like her strength was unlimited.

"Durandal!" she yelled as she held her sword high up in the air. "Lend us your power!"

The sword began to glow with a bright, golden shine as it pulsed, sending intermittent shockwaves throughout the battlefield. The Grimm began to run away, but it was too late.

" _Himmelslicht_!"

A bright flash covered the battlefield as far as the eye could see. When the glow was gone, so were all of the Grimm caught within its light. There were many more coming their way from outside of the battlefield, but at least this would give them the respite they so desperately needed.

"Nice one," Hillphire's voice sounded in their headsets. "I was wondering when you'd use that power again."

"The _Heaven's Light_ clearly works on the Grimm," Bedivere said, "even if it was meant to attack creatures from my world. The problem is the drain that it causes the bearer of the sword, especially when cast at such a high level as to encompass this entire desert."

"Nevertheless, you've given us a well-needed reprieve. We've been at this for hours already and there is no end to the Grimm."

"How many do you count?"

"At least a hundred thousand that our scanners can pick up."

"A hundred thousand?" Weiss yelled into her microphone.

"My thoughts exactly. There are likely even more outside of the range of our equipment. They are coming in from every direction possible."

"Then, we need to get this over with quickly," Bedivere said. "Teams RWBY and JNPR, come and join us ASAP. Team STRQ, Vernal and Oscar, I ask that you stay with the fleet to hold a line against the Grimm and keep them out of the ruins."

"What's the plan, friend thief?" Ruby said.

"The plan is—excuse me?"

"Friend thief. That's what I called you. Cuz you stole our teammate away."

"Ruby, now is not the time for this!" Weiss said.

"Psh."

"Anyway," Bedivere continued, "the plan is for our teams to scour the ruins. We need to find four artifacts, which then need to be placed on the altar in the center of the ruins. The entire temple will transform into the gateway once we have accomplished this task."

"Will we be able to get out in time?" Jaune asked.

"We won't need to," Weiss said. "The goal all along has been to spearhead an attack on Salem's realm and end this war once and for all."

"So, we're just gonna get sucked in?" Nora said.

"We will be the ones heading the attack," Bedivere said. "The rest of the armies will follow."

"Wait, but what about dangers and stuff?" Ruby said. "I mean, we're going into unknown territory."

"Have you all forgotten already?" Raven said. "That's the reason your princess and her knight absorbed all of the information the Relic of Knowledge had stored in it."

"Ohhh," Nora said. "So you guys are basically our maps."

"Sure," Weiss chuckled.

"I'm sending you photos of the keys now," Hillphire said. "Check your scrolls. Penny, I'm counting on you to lead them. Aside from Bedivere and Weiss, you're the only other person who has a detailed map of this entire ruin."

"You can count on me!" Penny said.

"I'm kinda surprised that there was this big of a settlement out here in the middle of the desert," Ren said. "I'm guessing this wasn't a desert to begin with."

"Your supposition is correct," Bedivere said into his headset. "This was once a lush grassland, transformed into this wasteland by a cataclysmic event eons ago."

"The fact that this leads directly to Salem's world," Weiss continued, "has robbed the land of any potential of being reborn."

"As if we didn't have enough reason to take her down already," Blake said. "This cements it."

"Just her being around makes the world a darker place," Sun said. "Let's do this."

Bedivere and Weiss took the time to rest, leaning against a stone pillar that was once part of an archway that led into the complex temple ruins.

"This is it," Bedivere said. "Are you ready?"

"For this war to be over?" Weiss said. "Definitely."

He watched as she took a few steps into the ruins. The sunlight glistened off of her armor, flashes of silver and gold and the blue off of her cape twinkling in his eye. There was no mistaking it. Weiss was definitely her reincarnation.

"Whose reincarnation?" Weiss said, turning around to face him. This was a thought that that two of them didn't share at all.

"Just..." he trailed off. "Someone I once knew."

She went back to him, looking up into his hazel eyes. "Who?"

He smiled at her.

"That's not an answer. And if you think you're gonna get me to drop the subject just by smiling at me, you're—"

She was correct. A smile didn't do it, but a kiss certainly did.

"Okay," she whispered. "That worked."

He chuckled. "You are the spitting image of her," he said.

"Was she someone you loved?"

He didn't answer for some time. "It was a love that could never be. For she was the incarnation of forbidden magic, a person who was not a person, and yet became a person."

"How come you never told me about her? Or even showed me a glimpse through our Connection?"

"She was a part of my past that I never wished to recall. Remembering her hurt too much."

"So you chose to bury her."

He nodded. "There was no body to bury when she left me. I had to do it in my own mind, in my own heart."

"I won't ever leave you like that," she said as she wrapped her arms around him.

"I know," he said, resting his head on top of hers. "I have faith in that. Because if you do ever leave me, I will find you and I will...do things to you."

She pulled back and looked up at him with a grin. "Oh, really? What kinds of things?"

He shrugged with a grin of his own.

"I might just have to skip out on you to find out myself."

"Or I could give you a demonstration after we end this war."

They turned to the side as Teams RWBY and JNPR arrived.

"Of course they'd be sitting here relaxing while we're running our asses off," Yang said.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Weiss said, power-walking into the ruins.

"Whoa," Blake said. "What's _her_ hurry?"

"Oh, nothing," Bedivere said, getting off of the pillar and following after Weiss. "I just gave her a little bit of encouragement, that's all."


	47. Chapter XLVII

CHAPTER XLVII

 _Anfang vom Ende_

While the rest of the Coalition attack forces held the incoming Grimm at bay, the exploration teams scoured the ruins for the keys to the gate. Weiss had rejoined Winter and the rest of Team RWBY while Bedivere searched the other half alongside Team JNPR.

"This place gives me the creeps," Nora said, pushing some vines out of her face as she and Ren led the way through the overgrown ruins. "And what's with all this growth? Aren't we in the middle of a desert?"

"There seems to be some kind of phenomenon here," Penny said, scanning their surroundings. "I can't get a fix on the readings, but it's not all that different from an oasis."

"Magic flows through here," Ren said as they came upon a large Dust deposit. "And Dust, apparently."

"Yeah," Jaune said. "I can feel it, too."

They were right. Bedivere could feel the magic flowing through the very ground upon which they trod. Though this was a completely different world from his own, the basic principles of magic were astoundingly similar. This was the same as standing in a temple with a Nexus nearby, except that the magic of this world did not require language to execute. Only Dust was needed for its use, or, in the case of the Maidens, mere thought.

—

Weiss led her party from the front, Durandal held at the ready. She pushed vines out of the way, cutting through thicker portions.

"I noticed you weren't with the rest of your team last night," Winter said, walking alongside her.

"Oooh!" Ruby whispered to Yang and Blake. "Here it comes!"

"What of it?" Weiss asked her sister.

"Nothing. Just making sure you used protection."

She reddened. "Winter, I love you, okay? But you really do have to mind your own business."

"I'm not having any of that. You're my younger sister. You _are_ my business."

"Well, you can relax, okay? I'm not pregnant." Just saying it out loud made her blush.

"That's not the only reason you should be using protection, you know. Never know what that knight of yours might be carrying."

"Winter!"

"I'm just looking out for you."

"I appreciate the gesture, but please, I'm a grown woman!"

"Last time I checked, you only just turned eighteen this year."

"Legally an adult in some municipalities," Yang said deadpan.

"Age of consent in Menagerie is sixteen," Blake said with a shrug.

"Hey!" Weiss said, turning to her team. "You guys mind your own business, too!"

"There go the exclamation points again."

"And besides," Weiss said to Winter as they continued their advance. "What if I _want_ to have children with him?"

There was a collective gasp among all of them.

"Ahh!" Ruby said, covering her ears. "All this adult talk again!"

"D-Do you know what you're saying?" Winter said.

"Yes, I do," Weiss said. "I already had this talk with him. After this war is over, we're going to settle down. Have a family together."

"Oh. I-I'm just a little surprised, since, you know, you're younger than me and all that."

"Yeah, well, I found the right guy. Or, I guess it's more accurate to say that he found me."

"Still, aren't you moving a little fast? I mean you two literally only met, what, three months ago?"

"Four," Yang said.

"That's still too short!" Winter said. "At least, that's my opinion. Clearly you two have been through a lot together. I just want to be sure that you're not making any rash decisions."

"Winter," Weiss began, "since when have you known me to make decisions without thinking them through first?"

"You have a point. I just...well, can you blame me for being a big sister?"

"No. Of course not."

"Hey!" Ruby said from another area. "I think I found something!"

"Do you think that's the key?" Blake said as she checked her scroll. "It matches the picture. I guess it is."

"One down! Message the others, let them know we've got one already!"

—

"Leave it to the team with Weiss on it to be overachievers," Nora said, looking at the picture of Ruby posing with the key.

"Less work for us," Ren said.

"When did you get all lazy?" Jaune said.

"Since the Silver Maiden and the Knight of Kameloth started killing ninety percent of the Grimm we face."

"Dude, it's been like that since Bedivere joined us."

"No, it was more like half went to him while the rest of us took the other half. Now that Weiss is just as powerful, we barely get to see any action."

"Except today," Nora said. "I can't believe how many Grimm there were out there just now."

"It's not surprising," Penny said, scanning their surroundings. "This continent hasn't been inhabited by humanity in a long time. And considering that the veil between our world and Salem's world is thinnest here, I'd assume the Grimm are capable of just walking into our reality from hers."

"It's not that different from Creatures of Shadow," Bedivere said. "Although there were certain factors that facilitated their entry into our world, it was true that they would spawn in random locations, but that it was much more frequent in certain areas where the veil was thinnest."

"Like right here," Ren said.

"That is correct."

"Hang on," Jaune said, "you never actually gave us a proper explanation on what these 'Creatures of Shadow' actually are. From the little bit you've mentioned, they almost sound like Grimm."

"I suppose they could be our world's counterpart to your Grimm. Although, the reality is far more nuanced. Your Grimm are creatures of the darkness that possess no souls and they have a drive to destroy everything related to humankind. Those beings native to the World of Shadow are no different from anything that lives in the normal world. They just tend to be more vicious since the World of Shadow is an unforgiving place."

"So, your Creatures of Shadow have souls?" Nora asked.

"No one ever bothered to check, but I'm assuming they do. After all, my Wraith comes from the World of Shadow. It is literally half of my existence."

"It's not just monsters, then," Penny said.

"Not at all. The World of Shadow is merely the side of reality that people never wish to face. It is the counterpart to Avalon, where the sun never sets. The World of Shadow never sees the sun. Because people fear the darkness, the World of Shadow appears as a terrifying landscape and everything that comes out of it is hideous."

"But this Avalon place is beautiful," Ren said.

"Precisely. Their true nature, however, is inconceivable to the human mind. They simply take those forms in order to have a concrete conception. Otherwise, they are no more than the light and dark in extremes, while our world is the light and dark in perfect balance."

"This is all interesting and stuff," Jaune said, drawing his sword, "but I think we should be focusing on something else!"

—

"Is that an Omega Grimm?" Ruby whispered.

"It's no surprise they'd be guarding the gate," Winter said. "But why haven't we come across a lot more?"

"They might have some surprises for us up ahead," Blake said.

"A trap, you think?" Yang said.

"That's the best I can come up with. Maybe they want us to get to Salem's world."

"Because they'd have home territory advantage," Winter said. "That's the likeliest reason."

Without warning, Weiss blasted forward, the wake of her flight destroying the growth and carving a path in the earth beneath her. The Omega Grimm had only enough time to turn to her before Durandal cleaved it in two. The others gawked.

"C'mon," she said. "We don't have time to waste debating Salem's grand strategy."

—

"Holy crow," Jaune said, his eyes wide open as they stared at the Omega Grimm's two halves vanishing into nothing. Bedivere had bisected the creature at the waist.

Nora chuckled. "Too bad Qrow's not here to hear that," she said.

"I think I found another key," Ren said, picking up an object and comparing it to the photos Hillphire sent to their scrolls. "Yup, most definitely a key. This one's the South Gate Key. Team RWBY already found the West Gate Key, right?"

"So East Gate and North Gate Key are all we need to get," Jaune said.

"Hmm," Penny said, scanning the item. "This object emits a unique energy signature. It resembles the waveform of a human soul, but not quite. It's more similar to a Dust radiation reading."

"Magic," Bedivere said.

"Yes. It is the same as the energy field that permeates this entire ruin."

"How big is this place anyway?" Nora said. "I'm getting hungry."

Ren threw a granola bar at her and she caught it excitedly.

"Yay! Thanks, Ren!"

"Good thing I packed extra," he said.

"Okay, I'm picking up a similar energy signature in this direction," Penny said, pointing down another stone path.

"Let's go," Bedivere said.

—

"How is their progress down there?" Ironwood asked Hillphire.

"Slow and steady wins the race, Mr. Ironwood," he replied. "It sounds like they've gotten two of the keys already. They just need two more and the gate will be open. We will have a straight path to Salem herself."

"Then, it's time to circle the wagons."

The second phase of the invasion was to establish a perimeter around the ruins in order to protect the gateway from both sides, possible Grimm crossing through or attempting to attack from the outside. The fleet began to move into position, hovering close to the ground to provide close in air support for the ground troops.

"Hollie, do you hear me?" Hillphire said into a mic.

"Loud and clear, sir," she said. "What do you need?"

"How are you holding up?"

"I'm not doing anything other than patching up wounds and singing to the soldiers and Huntsmen."

"Nothing funny with the Semblance?"

"Nope. Well, that might have something to do with a little lucky bird we both know and love."

"I have noticed Team STRQ regularly coming onboard. Did you request that?"

"Nope."

"Huh. I see. Team STRQ, do you copy?"

"Readin' ya loud and clear, boss!" Sun said excitedly as the sounds of fresh Grimm kills sounded through the radio.

"Status update?"

"We're good to go for another round, but we're heading back to base for a short rest. Qrow says it's good to pace ourselves and Raven agrees with him and so does Tai, so I'm not gonna complain about the old folks who know better than us young'ns!"

Hillphire chuckled. "Roger that. Oscar's with you guys, right?"

"Yeah. I'm afraid we're gonna become Team STORQ soon."

"Well, that'll make for three birds. But five-member teams aren't allowed."

"Yeah, that's why I tell him to stick with the Maiden lady. She's kickin' ass out here, by the way. Too bad we didn't get her help a long time ago."

"What's done is done. Keep it up."

Hillphire walked over to the main map display, where Ironwood and Glynda surveyed the battle along with Ghira and Kali.

"You seem concerned, young man," Kali said.

"Just a little," Hillphire said. "Why haven't Salem's heavy hitters showed up? She has three of the Maidens on her side. They could easily make this whole thing a complete nightmare, but instead it's like they're inviting us in."

"They probably believe having the home advantage will help them," Ghira said. "But I have faith in those youngsters down there. Plus, they have those two knights."

"I agree with Hillphire," Ironwood said. "We must proceed with caution. We may be walking right into a trap meant specifically for Miss Schnee and her knight."

"They're both aware of that fact, too," Hillphire said. "At least that's what I got from their radio chatter. Either way, Bedivere isn't stupid and neither is Weiss. Add to that the fact that they both have the Knowledge Relic flowing between them, Salem won't be able to trap them that easily."

—

"Found it!" Nora said, holding one of the keys up in the air.

"That's the East Gate Key," Penny said. "Oh, I'm getting an incoming message from the other team. They have the North Gate Key as well."

"To the middle of the temple we go!" Nora said.

"What do you think Salem's world looks like?" Jaune asked Ren.

"No idea," he said. "It can't be all that different from ours seeing as her henchmen regularly travel between there and here."

"It probably stinks," Nora said.

"Oh, gross," Jaune said. "Why'd you have to say that?"

"If there is a lot of decay, that is a possibility," Penny said.

"The center of the temple should be this way," Bedivere said, slashing through a number of thick vines with Caliburn.

—

"Finally," Yang sighed as they reached the clearing at the very center of the ruined temple, where the canopy was so thick as to let absolutely no sunlight through.

"It's too bad we can't do any sightseeing," Ruby said. "This place is gorgeous!"

"Kinda like the Emerald Forest, huh?" Blake said.

"Yeah!"

Weiss looked around for Bedivere, who had just entered the clearing with Team JNPR. She exchanged glances with him before turning to Ruby.

"You have the keys, right?" she said.

"Yup!"

Penny skipped to the middle of the temple circle along with Ruby, followed by the rest of the team.

"Okay, this goes here," Ruby said, placing one of her statues in the corresponding pedestal. "And this goes here."

When all four statues were in place, everyone waited, but nothing happened.

"Are you two sure you had it right?" Winter asked Weiss.

"Yeah," she said. "The knowledge literally is in my brain."

They both turned to Bedivere, who had thrust Caliburn directly into the altar, where the gate should have begun to open.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Jaune said. "Is your sword part of the key?"

"Bedivere!" Weiss yelled. "What have you done?"

He glanced back at her before pulling his sword back out and then slashing the giant stone pillar. The others rolled out of the way to dodge the collapsing stone formations.

"Okay, the _hell_ just happened?" Yang said.

Weiss was staring at their companion. He knew what destroying the stone pillars would do, so then, why? "You've just thrown away our only shot at invading Salem's domain!" she yelled at him.

Bedivere turned to the group. "What is the matter?" he said. "Does this surprise you?"

"Surprise?" Winter said. "It's more confusing than anything! What in the world do you think you're doing? You do realize that we went all the way out here to end this war, not get stuck in the middle of the continent with no backup, don't you?"

He chuckled, looking at the ground for a little bit. "I've been waiting for this day for a very long time."

"No," Jaune said. "You can't be..."

"Be careful, everyone!" Penny said. "I'm detecting powerful readings from him! And it's not the normal kind either!"

Weiss's heart skipped a beat as she felt a presence she hadn't felt in more than a month. But this wasn't right. Durandal's light had the power to seal away the Wraith for good. She held up her sword, which shined brightly in the Wraith's presence, but nothing happened.

"You must be confused, Silver Maiden," Bedivere said as he held up Caliburn, which quickly turned jet black. His accent was also gone. "It is true that Durandal's light has the power to drive away all creatures native to the World of Shadow, but Caliburn also grants me the power to defy such compulsion. After all, it is the sword which follows after the heart of the one bearing it."

"What are you talking about?" Yang said.

"Caliburn rightfully belongs to Arthur, but he left it in my care."

"No!" Ruby said. "He left it with Bedivere!"

"And who do you think you're talking to now?"

"You're nothing more than an impostor!" Blake said. "Bring back our friend!"

"There's no sense in talking with him!" Nora said. "Penny, juice me up!"

"Got it!" Penny said before zapping her with a powerful jolt of electricity.

"Nora!" Weiss yelled. "No! Stop!"

Nora let out a battle cry as she flew at the Wraith from above, Magnhild ready to crush him like an insect. He pointed Caliburn at her.

"Nora!" Weiss screamed, expecting him to unleash the full power of his sword at her friend.

"What the?" Nora said as she was suspended in the air.

"Sorry," the Wraith said, "but rushing to your death is not allowed."

A shockwave hurled her in the other direction. Ren leaped up in the air just in time to catch her.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said, panting. "That didn't hurt at all, but jeez, the force behind it."

"Wait," Jaune said. "You're saying that Caliburn gives you the power to just take over his body like that?"

"Well," the Wraith said. "I wouldn't say I outright take over his body. After all, I can only stay topside for a while before I have to go back under. Not because it tires me out or anything like that. I just couldn't have him getting suspicious, so I woke up whenever he went to sleep, went about my business, and then went back to bed just in time for him to wake up for breakfast."

"You've been...hijacking him...all month long?" Weiss said, clenching her fists and gritting her teeth.

"A little more than a month. It all started the moment Caliburn was back in my possession. Its power flows through me as if it were my own. It's Durandal's sister sword, after all. Equal in power, yet different. Durandal's light is holy. Caliburn's light is what it needs to be."

"It's...my fault?" Jaune said, falling to his knees.

"Jaune!" Ruby yelled, running to him.

"Ruby, I...it's because of...I did this..."

"No!" She wrapped her arms around him.

"Damn you!" Yang said, readying her gauntlets. "Even now you're _still_ messing with people's minds!"

"Oh, you haven't seen anything yet," he said as he began floating from the ground. "What none of you seem to realize is that this time, unlike all the other times, I have permitted him to remain conscious. That way, he can watch as I ravage all of you, as I snuff out your light until you have lost all hope and all will. I want him to see the empty shells that are left of the ones he holds most dear."

"Why?" Ruby screamed with tears in her eyes. "Why do you hate him so much?"

"You could never understand."

"Why don't you try to explain, then?" Winter said. "You went through all of that trouble to set this up, so why not?"

"As I said," he mumbled, his voice becoming grave, "none of you could ever understand."

"I'm detecting massive energy spikes!" Penny said. "It's another space-time anomaly!"

"The Labyrinth?" Blake said.

"No!" Weiss yelled. "Stop this!"

"Weiss!" the Wraith yelled as his whole body was blanketed with a black ooze-like substance that seeped from every orifice and spilled all over the earth. "Even your light will fade! The light of the Shieldmaiden is nothing compared to the darkness beyond the end of time!"

They all braced themselves as the blackness shot out in all directions, impossible to escape.

—

Weiss found herself in the middle of pitch-black emptiness. Her eyes were open, but there was nothing to see, nothing to hear, nothing to taste or smell. Even the ground beneath her feet forsook her. The one thing she could count on was the sword which hung at her side.

"Durandal," she whispered. "Please, guide me with your light."

The sword responded to her plea, pulsing once before letting off a soft glow, which broke through the impenetrable void, forming a world around her which she could perceive. The blackness stretched on forever, but it wasn't perfectly black anymore. The sky, if it could be called a sky, was dark red in color. Other than a single object in the distance, this place was absolutely featureless.

She began walking toward the object. It felt almost like hours of walking before she came closer and closer to it. When she was within sighting distance, she realized that it wasn't an object at all. It was a man, a man with chains hooked into his naked flesh, binding him to a crucifix that had fallen onto its side.

"Bedivere!" she screamed before running to him. She was going to try and free him when she realized that the chains themselves, though made of a metallic substance, seemed to be alive. She reached out slowly. They felt warm. As if they were made of something living.

"What's going on here?" she said quietly.

"That's right, Weiss," he said, opening his eyes, which were completely black. "This is the true me. The tortured self that you never get to see, that he would never allow you to see. No, the truth is that he himself is not aware of this. But he will be. Soon. Once I have dragged all of you into the center of despair itself. And then, when there is no more light left in the world, I shall return the universe, all of existence itself, to nothing."

"Why?"

"What kind of question is that? Is there any reason anymore?"

"There must be a reason. You hate him _so_ much, and yet I can't figure out why. You said before that you wanted me, back when we last met in that abandoned warehouse. Was that a lie, too? Some kind of plan you had to try and break him?"

"Of course not," he said as he began to free himself from the hooked chains that bound him to the sideways cross. Pieces of his flesh were left behind as he walked away from the torture device and strode to her. His body began to heal, slowly becoming whole again. He stood before her, bare-chested and barefoot, dressed only in pants. His silver hair blew in a breeze that didn't exist.

"The reason I hate him," he growled, "is because of what he has done to me."

"You mean when he fled?" Weiss said. "When he retreated into his own subconscious and you took his place?"

"That coward. That fool. Even now he blames me for that hell that our home world now suffers."

She shook her head. "That's where you're wrong. I see him every day. I feel his guilt every single day. He doesn't place any of the blame on you. If anything, he blames himself completely."

"You lie to me."

"I am not! You're not the one that has to look into his eyes every single day! Each time, each time I reach out to him, just like this..."

She put a hand to his chest, the other to his cheek, and looked up into his hazel eyes, which were not filled with any of the rage and hatred he spoke of. Even though she knew this was the Wraith, these were Bedivere's eyes. This was his heart she could feel throbbing in his chest.

"I don't understand," she said. "You are as much him as he is you. I don't sense any of this hatred you're talking about. All I feel when I touch you like this...is pure regret and sorrow."

He turned his head away from her.

"Why? Why is your heart so hollow when his is so filled?"

"I am his Wraith," he said, gazing deeply into her pale blue eyes, "the other side of him that exists in the World of Shadow. I am the part of him which is strongest, which has the power to fight against the horrors that cannot be perceived by the human mind. When he returned to his body, I took upon myself most of the regret and despair that he had fled from. Because I thought I could handle it, and because I knew that he was too fragile to take it for himself."

"But then," she said, starting to cry, "the regret and sorrow was too much for you to handle. And it corrupted you. And that's why you hated him so much."

He didn't answer, turning away from her to face the nothingness that came.

"I don't believe you when you say that you want to return the universe to nothing," Weiss said, gripping his hand tightly. "What I really think...is that you want to take your own pain away. And you've tried everything, and you believe oblivion is your only way out of your hell."

He tried to pull away from her, but her grip was firm.

"Don't run from me," she said. "You had to bear those burdens all on your own. Please, let me in."

"You wish to touch my heart?"

She nodded. " _No one_ should be forced to bear that kind of burden all alone."

"What you saw in his heart, that was a mere fraction of the horrors that blacken my very being. Believe me when I say that it _will_ destroy you. And if that were to happen, there would be no turning back for me either. Because I, too, care for you."

"I will _not_ be crushed by it!"

"Such easy words to say when you have no conception of the weight."

"Then, allow me to see for myself!"

He hesitated.

"Bedivere!"

He turned to her. She was calling him by his name. At this moment, he wasn't Bedivere's Wraith. He was Bedivere, the complete being, both halves reconciled and bound as a single man.

No. That was wishful thinking. The bond could never be forged between light and dark anymore. The separation was insurmountable. The light outshone all others while the dark was blacker than any abyss, so dark as to actively consume any light that came near.

And then it happened. He let out tears as he fell to his knees. Weiss had reached through the blackness, her hand cradling his heart. He released eons of anguish, anguish that was not his own, but that of hundreds of millions of human lives, of the dead and the living and those caught in between. All the terror, sorrow, regret, hollowness, it all came pouring out of his very core, flooding all of Remnant and blanketing the world in his blackened light. This Labyrinth was no longer that of the people of the world. It was his. And his Labyrinth was pure emptiness.

"I told you!" he cried as he turned to Weiss, whose own body and soul were starting to corrode from the immense distortion cascading from his body. "You must get away from me!"

"No!" Weiss screamed through tears. Even through the worst pain she had ever felt in her life, emotional, physical, existential pain, she refused to release her hold on his heart. "I am never going to let go! Even if this blackened flood drags me into Hell, I will gladly fall with you! Because I will never let you stand alone! And nothing you do will change my mind!"

She was right. Nothing would change her mind. But there was something he could still do. He commanded the Lance of Longinus, that ancient Spear of Destiny which had the power to slay even the gods, and with the authority to Judge them. With it, he could sever the ties that bind everything in the cosmic order to Fate, rewriting Destiny itself.

The spear materialized in the air and Weiss gazed up at its magnificence. Its shine was nothing like the holy glow of Durandal and Caliburn. This spear's splendor and glory originated from something that was ancient beyond ancient, in a time where time flowed backward and forward, up and down, and every direction possible, the origin of everything before everything was everything, when nothing was nothing, and everything was nothing, and nothing was everything.

He commanded the spear and it heeded, severing the bond between himself and Weiss, who was hurled away by the million-ton flood pouring from his heart. She reached out, screaming as he watched her get swept away by the tsunami of negative force, to return to the world of the material.

He looked down as the purest form of the darkness began to consume every atom that comprised Bedivere. This was how it needed to be. He would be the villain today and grant everyone else salvation no matter what it took. Because Weiss was right in her assessment. He did desire peace. But the only way peace was attainable was through pure annihilation.

And because Bedivere connected with the hearts of everyone, he knew of the pain and suffering humankind endured day after day. He could no longer carry that weight. Everything needed to end, and all the pain and sorrow with it.

He would bear the final sin of all humankind, and, though his soul be damned in the process, with that final sin, be their eternal salvation.


	48. Chapter XLVIII

CHAPTER XLVIII

 _To Gaze into the Abyss_

Team RWBY and JNPR watched as Weiss was ejected from the rip in space-time, surfing a flood of that black goo, which began to solidify and transform into something writhing, something alive.

"Bedivere!" Weiss screamed as she freed herself from the slime.

"Weiss, we need to get out of here!" Winter said, dragging her sister away.

"No! I'm not leaving him behind!"

Yang helped get Weiss out of the temple grounds, which began to shake violently enough that they nearly stumbled several times as they fled through the ruins, dodging falling debris and crevasses opening in the earth to swallow them whole.

"What the hell is going on?" Jaune yelled, leaping over a sinkhole.

"The distortion is changing," Penny said as she quickly sifted through all the information her scanners were picking up. "It's not the same as the Labyrinth anymore. It's...it's affecting the whole planet!"

—

"Hillphire, what the hell is happening?" Ironwood demanded.

"It's different from before," Hillphire said, running through all of the information the monitors displayed. "The Labyrinth...no, it's...something else entirely. Everyone! Brace yourselves!"

—

"What is that thing?" Sun said as he eyed something enormous rising up out of the center of the temple ruins.

"Quit gawking and let's move!" Qrow said as they ran to the command ship. Hollie was awaiting them at the top of the ramp.

"Where are Oscar and Vernal?" she yelled to them.

"Over here!" Vernal said as she and Oscar joined them. "You know, kid, I'm actually impressed."

Oscar chuckled shyly, scratching his head.

"Here it comes!" Sun yelled as the dome of blackness finally caught up to them. They all expected to be pulled into their own individual Labyrinths again, but when they all remained together, they looked around, puzzled.

"Okay," Qrow said, looking at Hollie, Sun, and Oscar. "You three have been through this before. Does this look right to you?"

"No," Hollie said. "The only reason we'd all be in the Labyrinth together is if..."

"...We're in a single person's Labyrinth," Oscar finished.

"But who's Labyrinth is this?" Raven said.

They looked at their surroundings. Though it was noon only seconds ago, the entire world as far as the eye could see had been plunged into a nighttime gloom. It wasn't pitch-black. They were still able to see by some dark red glow that originated from nowhere in particular.

"What is this stuff?" Vernal said as something red fell on her hand.

"It's not blood," Raven said, sniffing it.

"The hell is it, then?" Qrow said.

They looked to the sky, which was no longer a sky, but what appeared to be a massive umbrella of flesh that stretched as far as the eye could see. It was as though the whole world had been swallowed by something unfathomably large.

"What in the hell is going on?" Tai said.

"Yo!" Sun yelled loudly as he looked at the dirt beneath his feet. It wasn't dirt anymore. It was a quilt of flesh, patches of human skin stitched together. There were even faces at some areas.

"What is this?" Hollie screamed.

—

Teams RWBY and JNPR couldn't believe what they were seeing. The entire world all around them had been transformed into what could only be described as a hell on earth. Ruby tried to be careful where she stepped to keep from stomping on one of the faces, but it was impossible.

"Okay," Yang said. "You guys know how in videogames there's that one level or dungeon or something that you know for sure is the super last dungeon? Like, for sure?"

"Yeah," Jaune said. "I think this is it."

Blake turned to Weiss, who continued to walk with them, but appeared to be nearly catatonic otherwise. What in the world had she seen in that brief moment she disappeared? She had been gone for what seemed to the rest of them to be nothing more than five seconds. After their short bout of screaming for her, she had been spat out of the black cloud again, forced out by that tsunami of black fluid, which had by now transformed into that enormous tower that reached up into the altered sky.

"This is unbelievable," Winter said as she continued to gawk at their surroundings. "Something tells me even Salem's realm is not this horrible to look at."

"And that smell," Ruby said, pinching her nose. "Ugh! It's disgusting!"

"Like we're in the middle of a garbage disposal," Ren said.

"I think I'm gonna puke," Nora said, also pinching her nose.

"I cannot get a read on all of the phenomena surrounding us," Penny said, ceaselessly scanning their environment. "It's real, but at the same time it's not. This red liquid periodically dripping on us isn't blood either, but it does contain iron in it, hence the color."

"And the flesh beneath our feet?" Yang asked.

"It's definitely living matter."

"Living? How the hell can it be alive?"

"I'm sorry, I have no answer for that."

Winter noticed one of their members missing and she turned around to see Weiss staring wide-eyed into the distance at the blasphemous tower rising up into the heavens.

"Weiss!" she cried out before running back to her. The rest of the teams joined her as well. "Are you okay?"

"That is the Tower of Qliphoth," she mumbled, "from which the Nehemoth emerge to drag human souls into perdition."

"What are you droning about? Weiss! Snap out of it!"

"H-Huh?" Weiss said as she shook her head. "S-Sorry, sis, I was just..."

"Uh, guys?" Jaune said to the group. "I think we have company."

In the distance were shadows slowly writhing toward them. As they came closer, it became clear that they were human-like in appearance, far too human. Each one appeared to be tortured in various ways, each method of torment as varied as the next.

"These are just like the people who came out of the Labyrinth at Mistral!" Blake said.

"What should we do?" Ruby asked, backing away with everyone else.

"Well, we can't have conversations with them!" Yang said, punching one in the face hard enough to kill it in one hit. As soon as it hit the ground, the carpet of flesh seemed to come alive as it assimilated the defeated one's remains.

"What the hell just happened?" Winter said, watching the grotesque sight.

"We should probably move," Ren said, looking at something else in the distance. "It's not safe to be here."

"What in the world are those?" Nora yelled, looking in the same direction as Ren. In the distance was an enormous beast composed of a combination of flesh and machinery, with cables and pipes serving as veins and nerves.

"Thagirion," Weiss said. "The great giants who spread grief across the world."

More of them emerged from the darkness. They each began fighting against one another.

"I ain't complaining!" Jaune said, leading the way.

Weiss glanced back at the big tower. _No,_ she thought. _I shouldn't be running away._

There were more giants ahead of them, different in appearance from the last ones. These had gaping mouths with rows and rows of teeth further in. The head was disproportionately large compared to the rest of the body and there seemed to be no eyes. The hands themselves contained smaller mouths, similarly lined from the outside further in with countless teeth. Even the fingertips ended in mouths.

"Ga'ashekelah," Weiss mumbled. "These are the great devourers. Stay away from the mouths! They lead into oblivion!"

"Good to know!" Yang said before firing away with her gauntlets.

"Hey, does Weiss seem weird to you?" Jaune asked Ren.

"She does have a connection with Bedivere," Ren said. "Given that fact and how she's now the Shieldmaiden, it isn't surprising that she knows this stuff. It all probably comes from his world."

"You're probably right about all that, but I was thinking about how out of it she is."

"I mean, she _did_ just witness the love of her life get taken over by the Wraith again, after so long keeping him suppressed."

"Damn it. I know."

"And it's not your fault, Jaune. There's no way you could have known."

"But I'm the one who insisted on it."

"At the sword's request, right? You said it yourself; it wanted to be back with its rightful master."

"Yeah, but still."

"There's nothing we can do about it now, Jaune. And who's to say it wouldn't have ended up this way anyway?"

—

"We've lost another three ships!" an officer said.

"That's it," Ironwood said. "We're lifting off the ground."

"I would advise against that," Hillphire said as he suited up for battle. He gestured with his head toward a window. There was an enormous black thing flying high up. It resembled a whale somewhat. "From the looks of it, it's a high-altitude flyer only. But how much do you wanna bet the moment we reach its zone, it'll swallow this whole ship?"

"Do we have any other options?" Ironwood said.

"I'm not going down without a fight," Hillphire said.

"Neither am I," Ghira said, joining Hillphire with Kali.

"It's about time I did something other than fix things all day myself," Glynda said.

"So, how 'bout it?" Hillphire said. "Atlas tech vs. Hillphire tech. How many of those things do you think you can take down?"

Ironwood allowed a grin to form on his face. "You're challenging me, boy?"

"Only if you're up to it, General Ironwood."

He chuckled before turning to his lieutenant. "Maintain present altitude and shoot down anything that doesn't look friendly. Give this order to the entire fleet."

"Yes, sir!"

"Okay," Ironwood said, cracking his knuckles as he joined the others. "Let's see what all of you are made of."

—

Meanwhile, the teams continued to defend the command ship alongside other Coalition troops. No matter how many they took down, they seemed to replenish their ranks endlessly. Fortunately, the enormous monsters kept their distance. After the fleet had destroyed a number of them with their large cannons, they stopped attacking, but the smaller humanoid monstrosities continued to march without end.

"What is with these guys?" Sun said. "It's like they spawn infinitely or something!"

"That's what I was thinking myself," Blake said, standing back to back with him. "Also, have you noticed something?"

"What's that?"

"How long have we been fighting?"

He looked around. "I dunno. Maybe half an hour?"

"You sure about that?"

He paused in thought. "More. An hour, maybe."

"Are you even the least bit winded?"

"Psh. You know I can last way longer than this."

"Sun."

"No, I know what you mean."

"You're right," Ren said as he and Nora, who were also standing back to back, neared them. "It's almost like this battle is meant to last forever. We aren't getting tired at all and the monsters continue to spawn."

"I mean, I don't mind the fun we're having," Nora began, "but our people don't re-spawn. I'm pretty sure I saw a Mistral soldier join the flesh rug when he died and fell on the ground."

"So they only grab you when you die and fall," Sun said. "Let's not die and fall."

"Easier said than done," Blake said.

In another section of the battlefield, Ruby and Yang took a short breather from the fighting.

"Yang, are we doing the right thing by killing these people?" the younger sister asked.

"Don't think of it as killing people," Yang said. "Think of it as saving them from a really shitty fate."

"But, they get sucked into the ground anyway and get added to the patchwork of skin and stuff. What if they're still conscious?"

"Just, don't think about it, Ruby. Focus on staying alive and keeping your friends alive."

She nodded. "Okay."

Hours seemed to go by. The humanoid monsters were quite weak relative to the Coalition soldiers, particularly the veteran Huntsmen and Huntresses, but the swarms often became overwhelming and some soldiers would get caught in traps. Steadily, their numbers continued to decrease, even as the hordes seemed to grow.

"We are not getting anywhere like this," Ironwood said, standing side by side with Hillphire, who reloaded his Dust magazines. "We'll be out of ammo and fuel before this battle ends."

"No, we won't," Hillphire said, checking his suit's reserves. "Check your ammo."

Ironwood looked into his gun's chamber, which was full. "How is this possible? I've been shooting at monsters since we got out here."

Hillphire showed him his open Dust magazines, all of which were filled to the brim.

"Our supplies are unlimited?"

"As much as our strength," Penny said, joining them. "It appears no one is getting tired, even though it's been hours since this battle began."

"Hours?" Ironwood said with disbelief. "You must be mistaken."

"None of us have perceived the time lapse, but my internal clocks indicate that we have been fighting now for five hours, fifty-seven minutes, and thirty-three seconds."

"What is with this place?"

"This is the nature of the Labyrinth," Hillphire said. "Nothing ever works properly in here."

Winter turned to her sister as she stopped moving again, staring off into the distance. There was a flash of lightning, followed by a rumble of thunder, even though there were no clouds up in the sky. The fleshy umbrella covering the planet was still fully visible without any obstructions aside from the gargantuan whale-like objects that intermittently floated by.

"Weiss!" Winter said, hurrying to her sister's side. "Do you need a break?"

She didn't answer. She was grasping Durandal's hilt tightly. The sword continued to glow. Its very light seemed to struggle against the darkness brought about by this accursed place.

"I have to go back to the tower," Weiss finally said quietly.

"What?" Winter said. "What are you saying?"

"I need to go back to him."

"To Bedivere? We didn't even see him come out!"

"He's out there...somewhere."

"Weiss, think for a minute! We don't even know what we're up against!"

Weiss looked at the ground for a moment. This was wrong. This world was all wrong. Remnant was broken now and she was the only one who could fix it. Without warning, she dashed out into the darkness, her glowing sword the only indication of where she was.

"Weiss!" Winter yelled.

"What happened?" Yang said as she and the rest of Team RWBY joined her.

"She just ran off!"

"Toward the tower?" Ruby said.

"I'm guessing that's where she's going, but what the heck for?"

"Because she'd never give up on him," Blake said. "And we're not giving up on her."

"Winter, can you hold your ground with everyone else here?" Yang asked her.

"Don't tell me you guys plan on going after her," Winter said.

"Of course," Ruby said. "Team RWBY sticks together no matter what."

"You guys are as reckless as ever, aren't you?"

"Not reckless," Blake said. "Loyal."

Winter let out a smile. "I can accept that. Go. I will hold the fort with the others."

—

Weiss was surrounded by the humanoid creatures, but she did not stop her advance, not for a moment. Durandal's edge never wore down and its light never faded. Neither did her strength fail her today. Determination alone was what drove her forward. She never took her eyes off that wretched tower as it grew larger and larger in her field of vision.

She stopped as she came across a new enemy. These were all formed out of that black goo that had spilled from the center of this catastrophe. As they neared her, they took more and more definite shape, some with angry scowls on their faces while others looked terribly anguished. There were even some that appeared terrified and others that laughed hysterically. Each and every one of the things also verbalized their apparent emotions.

"What the hell are these?" Yang said as the rest of Team RWBY caught up with Weiss. "And what is that...that noise?"

"They're...laughing," Ruby said. "And crying. And screaming. Some of them sound scared, even."

"Weiss, do you know what they are?" Blake asked her.

"These are the Nehemoth," Weiss said. "If you give in to their song, they will drag you into eternal perdition."

"Song?" Yang said. "You call that howling 'song'?"

—

Nora smashed through a monstrous mutation with her hammer and turned to face another, which looked totally different from the others. It shrieked into her face, filling her entire being with dread unlike any she had ever felt. It was enough to paralyze her on the spot. Ren made it to her just in time to stop the thing from engulfing her body.

"Are you okay?" he asked, catching her as she lost her balance.

"Y-Yeah," she said. "Thanks."

"Sure thing."

"That's twice now."

"I'm there for you any time."

She smiled.

"What was that thing?"

"I have no idea. But...did you hear that scream?"

"Yeah. It sounded really scared."

—

Ruby found herself terrified as she faced three laughing Nehemoth at the same time. She backed away slowly before running into another one, which was crying. Blake pulled her away quickly before slicing through all four monsters.

"Are you okay?" Blake said to her.

"Y-Yeah," Ruby said, wiping tears from her eyes.

"Do you guys notice something really weird about some of these Nehemoth things?" Yang said to them.

"You noticed, too, huh?" Blake said.

"What is it?" Ruby said.

"Some of them look like us. And our friends. And Weiss. And Bedivere."

"This is all his Labyrinth," Weiss said. "The never-ending battle, it's his own personal torment. Long ago, he saw no end to the war. And all of this is his subconscious fear that his friends would be forever stuck in the same cycle of ceaseless battle."

"This is why he never held back on us during training," Ruby said. "Because he never wanted us to end up like this. At first, I thought it was to keep us from getting killed in battle, but now I think it was to give us the strength to end all the battles."

Ruby, Yang, and Blake looked at their surroundings as they transitioned between the carpet of flesh and the temple ruins, which had been fully supplanted by a quasi-organic arrangement of structures, a profane mockery of the real-world counterpart. Rather than stone pillars, they were pillars of flesh and bone, complete with veins pulsing some kind of black liquid that intermittently glowed red before fading back into black.

"What the hell happened here?" Yang said, dodging a hand from one of the organic pillars that reached out to her.

They all looked up to the tower, whose peak was too high to see from down here. From the way it curved and leaned, it didn't look possible for it to remain upright, and yet it didn't topple over, although from time to time some of the corpses that comprised it would rain down from the sky, falling all around them and being absorbed into the rest of the organic architecture. Some of them would attack before Team RWBY would dispatch them.

Ruby covered her mouth as they arrived at the base of the giant tower, which writhed with the reanimated corpses that were trapped within its structure. The corpses themselves were none other than the Nehemoth. A cacophony of hysterical laughter, anguished moaning, terrified yelling, and furious screaming came from the tower, forcing the youngest in the group to cover her ears to block out the horrible sounds.

"You're not gonna climb that thing, are you?" Blake asked Weiss, who was staring up at the top.

"Bedivere," she mumbled. "I'm coming!"

"You just had to open your big mouth," Yang said, to which Blake sighed.

They all held their ground as Weiss climbed the tower, dodging the hands which reached out to try and grab her. She was about a hundred meters up the tower on a landing when she looked back down at her allies. Some of the Nehemoth were coming loose from the tower to try and grab them while other Nehemoth spawned out of black ooze elsewhere.

 _Keep going,_ she thought to herself.

Weiss continued her climb, the light of Durandal guiding her to the top of the tower of corpses, which rose so high as to give her a view of the curve of the planet. She looked around. She was certain now that the sky made of flesh likely covered the entire world. Floating giant things circled the tower, hundreds of eyes all over their bodies focusing on her.

 _Don't stop,_ she thought, pressing onward.

The pinnacle was in the form of a giant platform supported by the tower beneath, though from the looks of it, it probably floated of its own accord, with the tower as nothing more than a visual representation of the thoughts of the master of this Labyrinth.

—

"Damn it!" Yang said, punching a Nehemoth right in the face and collapsing its skull with the force of her strike. "I can't figure out which part of the ground is gonna come alive and try to grab me!"

Just then, a hand on the floor grabbed her by the ankle.

"Yang!" Ruby said as she ran to her sister's aid.

The corpse to which the hand belonged rose out of the ground, attacking them briefly before Ruby sliced it in half, turning it into a pile of goo that rejoined the rest of the organic structure around them.

"Ugh!" Yang shrieked. "I hate this place!"

Blake sliced through three Nehemoth at the same time. Fighting was difficult enough to begin with, but this crying and screaming and laughing did nothing to make it any easier. She looked at her hand, which was shaking. Someone's touch caused it to stop. She looked to the side. It was Ruby. They exchanged nods before continuing the fight.

—

Weiss stopped at a small landing just under the platform, which, like the rest of the tower, was composed purely of Nehemoth glued together by the black ooze. She looked around for a way to get on top of the platform, but there were no hatches or any kind of traversable paths. She would need to create her own. She considered negotiating the underside of the tower, but that was far too risky, especially with the Nehemoth perpetually trying to grab her.

She mentally measured the distance from here to the edge of the platform before projecting a number of glyphs, which she used as launch pads to get up past the edge and on top of the disk-shaped platform. She looked around. This was literally on top of the world. From the knowledge granted her by the Relic stashed at Haven, she knew that no mountains on the planet rose this high. She looked down at the Coalition fleet. The enormous airships looked like mere action figures and toys from all the way up here. She couldn't even see the individual Huntsmen and Huntresses.

She turned to the center of the platform. There was something protruding from the flesh. It was a sword. It was Caliburn. She looked around. Nothing else was up here. Aside from the rough terrain caused by the countless Nehemoth beneath her feet, Caliburn, which was black as night, was the only other thing up here. She approached it. She was going to reach out to it when she remembered what had happened when she tried to take hold of the Wraith's heart. The flood nearly corrupted her in seconds.

It was likely that Caliburn was now tied directly to the Wraith. Grasping it now would only spell disaster for her. She brought up Durandal, which continued to glow with golden light. There was one thing she could try. She brought her sword back, preparing for a powerful strike, before swinging at Caliburn, sending it flying off into the distance.

The tower began to collapse the instant Caliburn was free.

—

"What in the world?" Blake said, looking up at the crumbling tower of Nehemoth corpses.

"Run!" Yang said as they all fled the area.

"Where's Weiss?" Ruby said as they were clear of the falling tower's debris path.

"There!" Blake said, spotting numerous glyphs appearing all over the place, which Weiss was probably using to control her descent.

"The fight's not over, guys!" Yang said, smashing her fists together as they engaged a number of Nehemoth.

In the midst of their scuffle, nobody noticed that something else had formed out of the black ooze, something which held a fixed gaze on Ruby.

—

The other teams were in the middle of fighting when they found themselves face to face with Salem's followers.

"Adam," Sun growled. "What the hell are you doing here? And where's Ilia?"

"Relax," he said. "We're not here to fight you. We're here for that thing out there. And that traitor of a bitch disappeared on us when we needed her most."

 _Disappeared?_ Sun thought. "Oh, I get it. She's probably camouflaged as someone around here so she could ambush us while you've got our attention."

Adam sighed. "Do you actually think I'd _need_ her help just to get to you?"

"Let's do this, then."

"I'd love to, kid, but unfortunately, we have bigger fish to fry. Although, we could definitely get right to it as soon as we finish what we came for."

"Where's your handsome knight?" Cinder said, walking toward them with two others in tow. Oscar immediately recognized them as the Summer and Winter Maidens. "Hello, sister," Cinder said as she stood face to face with the Spring Maiden.

"Sorry, but I don't know you," Vernal said.

"We should probably get to know each other quickly, then. Cuz we kinda need all four of us to take that crazy knight down."

"What are all of you doing here?" Ironwood demanded. "As you can see, you're outnumbered."

"And you're outmatched," Dr. Watts said. "We have three Maidens on our side. Anyway, as Adam already said, we are not here to fight with you. That Wraith friend of yours approached us a month ago to try and use us and we tried to use him in return, you know, to see who was making the deal with the bigger devil. Well, when this, horrible place started to encroach on Madam Salem's territory, she realized that he was actually the bigger devil and that we should probably come and help clean up this mess."

"And so you brought out the big guns," Qrow said.

"So to speak. But we need to act quickly. With every second that passes, this calamity continues to root itself deeper and deeper into our world. If we wait too long, it will be impossible to reverse this anomaly."

"Now, he's barking orders at us," Jaune said.

"Look, I don't expect you trust us, but if we wanted to attack you, we would have done so a long time ago, while we were watching. And with the Silver Maiden out there and your knight taken over by the Wraith, there's no way your Spring Maiden alone would hold out against us for long."

"You wanna test your little theory?" Vernal growled.

"As I said, we need to work together," Dr. Watts continued. "Otherwise, there won't be a world left for you to save."

"Or one left for Salem to rule over," Hillphire said.

"I'm glad we understand each other."

—

While Yang and Blake were busy with the Nehemoth, something had grabbed Ruby by the neck, gripping her strongly enough to keep her from crying for help. She turned to face the thing. It was Bedivere. Not a blackened Nehemoth version of him. It was actually him in the flesh.

 _The Wraith!_ she thought as she struggled to break free.

"Shit!" Yang cried out, running to Ruby. "You let my sister go, you son of a bitch!"

She punched the Wraith, sending it flying. Blake caught Ruby as she fell.

"I am getting really sick and tired of this!" Ruby screamed before coughing. "Stop grabbing me by the neck!"

A number of extremely aggressive Nehemoth attacked them and Ruby once again found herself separated from her sister and Blake. The Nehemoth were actively working to isolate them this time.

"Ruby!" Yang cried out as she fought off several Nehemoth at once. "Dammit, get the hell out of my way!"

"Bedivere!" Ruby yelled, blocking against his incessant attacks. "Stop! It's me! It's Ruby!"

"I know who you are!" the Wraith shrieked at her.

"Then, why—"

He grasped her by throat again and she dropped her scythe to try and break free. She gasped for air as he drew her in closer, his face only inches from hers. She looked deep into his hazel eyes, which seemed to be turning more and more silver with each passing second.

"What's he doing to her?" Blake yelled.

They shielded their eyes as a bright flash of light came from the space between them. Ruby herself began to glow with a grayish-silver color, which started to show on the Wraith's body as well.

—

 _I need to find it,_ Weiss thought, frantically searching the area. _Caliburn! Where did you fall?_

 _Somebody,_ she heard Ruby's voice in her mind. _Please...help..._

"Ruby!" Weiss yelled as she dashed to where her team was fighting. Ruby was suspended in the air, the Wraith grasping her by the neck. Weiss brought down Durandal as hard as she could at the Wraith, who dropped Ruby to the ground and fled to a mass of writhing corpses. "Are you all right?" Weiss asked her best friend.

Ruby coughed and wheezed as she grasped at her throat. "Okay, this is getting ridiculous!" she said, picking her scythe up off the ground.

"What did he just do?" Yang said as she finished the last of the attacking Nehemoth.

"I don't know," Ruby said. "I just, it felt weird, like he was groping around inside my soul for something. And then I felt like he was taking something from out of me and copying it for himself."

Weiss held her by the shoulders, looking into her eyes. "They're still silver," she said.

"Her eyes?" Blake said. "Wait, does this have something to do with her silver eye powers or something?"

"This has everything to do with it," Weiss said. "Most likely it's a countermeasure against the Maidens."

"You mean Vernal?" Yang said.

"Not just her. All four Maidens are here."

"Wait, since when?"

—

"It's too late," Dr. Watts said as Cinder and the other three Maidens prepared themselves to attack. "He's already replicated the powers of the silver-eyed warrior."

"He's right," Hillphire said. "I'm detecting a significant waveform change from the tower.

"He's thorough," Ren said. "I guess he wasn't a leader of an entire brigade of knights for nothing."

"We're all screwed, then," Sun said.

"No," Winter said, catching everyone's attention. "We all keep fighting. And we count on Weiss. Because she has what it takes to stop this."

—

"Bedivere!" Weiss screamed as the mass of writhing Nehemoth began to congregate and form something large, something humanoid, no different from how the Tower of Qliphoth had been constructed. Each finger on the giant's hands was made of a whole Nehemoth body. Its chest opened up into a cavity, within which Bedivere was chained up to the inside of the monstrosity.

"Is that really him?" Blake said, eyeing the numerous scars and blood all over his flesh.

Bedivere opened his eyes. "I will end all suffering," he said, his voice echoing throughout the entire world. "Relinquish yourselves unto me and I shall grant you salvation."

"Like hell that's gonna happen!" Yang said.

"We're not going down without a fight!" Ruby said.

"There is no need to resist," he continued. "Death is freedom from pain. Oblivion is bliss."

"Some of us don't actually want to die yet!" Yang said.

Without any other response, the chest closed up and the massive giant began moving, standing fully upright. At its tallest, it rose only a few feet shy of three hundred, towering far above them.

"Get ready!" Blake said. "Here it comes!"


	49. Chapter XLIX

CHAPTER XLIX

 _I Am the Light of the World_

"What is that thing?" Nora yelled, looking off into the distance at the enormous humanoid mass of Nehemoth, which stomped and swatted at something on the ground. There were four objects flying around, one glowing white, the other glowing red, another yellow and the last one glowing a deep purple.

"It's Team RWBY," Penny said, zooming in on the fight. "Team RWBY is engaging that giant monster!"

"I think it's time for Team JNPR to join in," Jaune said, looking at his team, who nodded to him in agreement.

"I don't think it's wise to split up like this," Ironwood said.

"No, I agree with Team JNPR," Hillphire said. "Go, you guys. Save him. We will hold the fort out here."

"Take care of my sister, please," Winter said, placing a hand on Jaune's shoulder.

"She won't need any protecting," Ren said. "I think that's her glowing super brightly out there."

They looked at the behemoth in the distance. It was true. Weiss's light was the brightest out of them all.

"Let's go!" Penny said, leading the charge into the dark landscape.

—

"Jeez, this thing is persistent!" Yang said, fighting off a group of Nehemoth that had broken free from the main body.

Ruby and Blake covered their ears as four Nehemoth screamed at them at the same time, but they recovered quickly and made short work of them.

"Isn't there something we can do about all this screaming and crying?" Ruby said.

"The laughing bothers me more," Blake said. "It's like these things have lost their sanity."

Yang looked up at Weiss, who took a hard hit from the giant's arm. She ran in her direction and caught her before she smashed into the ground.

"You okay?" she asked.

"Yeah," Weiss said. "Nice save."

"Hey!" Jaune yelled as Team JNPR joined them. "You guys miss us?"

"It's about time you helped us out!" Blake said.

"Look out!" Nora yelled as the giant's hand came crashing down on the group.

They all attacked it at once and the hand detached from the rest of the body as it broke into a mass of Nehemoth that spread out and engaged them.

"Are we even doing any damage to it?" Ruby said.

"I don't think so," Ren said. "But then again, we've never faced anything like this before."

"I doubt Salem had any clue what she was getting into when she made a deal with the Wraith either," Nora said.

"A deal with the Wraith?" Blake said.

"That's right. Salem's faction are back there with the command ship fighting alongside our people right now. They've been here for a while."

"Apparently," Ren began, "the Wraith approached them with a proposal, something about getting us as close to victory as possible before stopping us."

"Because hope makes despair much more powerful," Weiss said. Everyone turned to her. "If only I had known. I could have stopped this."

"Weiss, this isn't your fault," Jaune said. "If anything, it's mine. I gave Caliburn to him, even after he warned me so many times not to."

"Caliburn," Weiss mumbled.

"Huh?"

"Caliburn is in there somewhere. If only I can get to it. Everyone! Look to Durandal's light!"

The teams all turned to Weiss, who was holding Durandal high up in the air. She closed her eyes and the sword began to glow even brighter. " _Lied der Tapferkeit_!"

—

Something extremely bright shone from the battle with the enormous monster formed out of the Nehemoth bodies. Everyone fighting around the Coalition command ship closed their eyes as this radiance bathed them in its warm glow, filling every single one with hope, courage, and the strength to continue fighting. Durandal's power was enough to make every single one of them completely immune to the effects of the Nehemoth.

"That was the light of Durandal?" Hazel said.

"That's the Silver Maiden for ya," Qrow said, standing next to him. "Hey, you. Scorpio man."

"What?" Tyrian snarled.

"Did the light make you less insane?"

He began laughing hysterically.

"Some among us are lost beyond hope," Raven said, standing next to her brother before vanishing as they moved faster than human sight.

"I can't believe I'm fighting alongside you," Hillphire said as he stood back to back with Adam.

"Neither can I," Adam said.

"I wanna give you a fair warning, though. As soon as we seal up that Wraith for good, you and I are gonna have a nice long chat. With our swords."

"Funny, because I was thinking the same thing. Except I had no intention of warning you."

"How 'bout we settle this right now, then?"

"Adam!" Cinder yelled. "Not now!"

"Whatever," Adam said.

"Tch," Hillphire scoffed.

"If only we could still use the power of the four Maidens," Ironwood said. "You were right, Ozpin. We all should have listened to you."

"None of us could have predicted what is happening now," Ozpin said. "That Wraith is something that does not belong in this world. Bedivere said it himself. It is nothing more than an invader from another realm."

"And we're gonna save him from that fate," Hollie said, standing with them. "Because he would do the exact same thing for us."

—

"Ruby!" Yang called out as she and Blake got ready to launch her up.

Ruby got a running start before her sister grabbed her by the hand, hurling her up. Blake was the last to give her a final boost with her grappling hook. Ruby looked to the side at Weiss, who had propelled herself up with her glyphs. They gave each other a nod before attacking the giant monster's arm and shoulder. After enough slashes, its arm detached, falling to the ground and breaking off into countless Nehemoth that scurried around.

At the same time, Penny and Nora had begun a bombardment on the opposite leg, weakening its knee. Nora looked at Penny and both immediately had the same idea. Nora leaped into the air. As she was mid-flight, Penny zapped her with as strong a lightning bolt as she could. The amount of force behind her hammer smash was so great that it shattered the monster's leg, sending countless Nehemoth bodies flying in every direction.

"Yeah!" Jaune said, stabbing a Nehemoth in the chest. "Take that!"

"It's not over just yet," Ren said. "It's pulling itself back together!"

"Dang it!" Nora said. "And I thought we just got the finisher in!"

"Not quite," Weiss said. "I think I have an idea how to stop this thing from regenerating."

They watched as her sword began to pulse. Nearby Nehemoth were rendered immobile and docile at its light.

"Okay, let's do it again!" Ruby said. "But we'll all attack at the same time!"

"At all the weak points!" Penny said.

"Hit it!"

Everyone opened fire at the enormous monster, knocking Nehemoth off of its body all over the place, staggering its movements. Jaune, being the only one without a gun, kept close watch over their perimeter. He closed his eyes as a voice entered his mind.

 _Jaune, what are you doing?_

"Huh?"

 _C'mon. You've used Caliburn for long enough. You should know by now that you don't actually need a gun to shoot things._

He smiled as he held up his sword, the sword that contained a part of Pyrrha within. "That's right. I've got you with me."

He swung several times, sending out waves of his aura, which tore and blasted away at the Nehemoth composing its enormous body.

"That's it!" Weiss said as she continued to charge up the power within Durandal. "Keep going!"

"I'm reloading!" Ruby said as she switched out magazines. "Wait, never mind! I forgot we don't run out of ammo here!"

"Ruby, c'mon!" Yang said.

"Force of habit, okay?"

After continuous bombardment from the whole group, the massive collection of Nehemoth began to fall apart. It was at this time that Weiss unleashed the full power of Durandal, throwing her own life force into the blast.

" _Himmelslicht_!" she cried out, her voice echoing for miles.

The explosion of light was so bright that even this black landscape was turned into daytime. Every misshapen creature that the light touched vanished like shadows erased with the rising of the sun. The Nehemoth had been removed from existence, as well as all of the giants and flying whales.

"The sky's back to normal," Nora said. "Are we back in the real world?"

"Define 'real'," Blake said.

"I see the sun," Jaune said. "And clouds. And the trees, and the desert, and, yeah, I think we're back."

"I'm picking up something from the epicenter of the anomaly!" Penny said.

In place of the giant that had been annihilated by Durandal's light was what appeared to be a floating object that shone with the brilliance of a star. In its center was a silhouette, its form impossible to fully discern from all the light.

"I am the Light of the World," a disembodied voice echoed across the globe. "I am the One who grants Salvation."

"Is that Bedivere?" Ruby said, shielding her eyes against the radiance.

"Damn it," Weiss muttered, biting her lip. "I thought Durandal's light could touch Caliburn, but nothing seems to be able to reach it anymore."

"Cast all of thy burdens upon me," the voice continued to echo. "Relinquish all thy pain before my feet."

"What is he saying?" Yang said.

"I think he's lost it," Jaune said. "That Labyrinth we were just in, that was his, right? From the looks of it, I'd say he's gone insane."

Weiss didn't want to believe it either, but Jaune was right. Still, she had to try to reach him. She had to. She could not simply abandon him, not after everything they had gone through together.

"Bedivere!" Weiss yelled. "It's me! It's Weiss!"

"Come before me," his voice echoed, "and leave all thy burdens here."

"There's something weird about that light," Ren said. "It's bright, but something about it feels really dark."

"Yes," Penny said. "The readings are all over the place. If what I am detecting is correct, this phenomenon is the beginning of the universe."

"Huh?" Nora said.

"There are particles blinking in and out of existence at a rate that's too fast for me to detect properly, but it's happening so often that I can paint some kind of picture of what's going on. I'm pretty sure Liam is detecting the same thing."

—

"We need to get the fleet off the ground," Hillphire said to Ironwood.

"What?" the Atlas commander-in-chief said. "Why now?"

"That thing at the epicenter, it's gonna explode into something really big."

"Bigger than the Labyrinth?" Winter said.

"Way bigger. Weiss is the only one who can stop that thing and if we're too close, she'll hold back and it will consume her before consuming space-time. We need to leave. Now."

Salem's faction also fled the battleground, returning to her domain to defend against whatever was coming next. In the meantime, the entire Coalition boarded the fleet and retreated to a safe distance.

"Damn it," Hillphire said, looking through monitors that displayed what their probes and drones were capturing. "I thought Team RWBY and JNPR already got out of there."

"We have to go back!" Hollie said.

"We can't," Qrow said, making a fist. "We'd be risking the entire fleet if we went back for them."

"Just gotta trust in those kids," Tai said.

"I have more than simple faith," Raven said. "After all I've seen, I think they can do this."

"Too bad I can't get my shot in," Vernal said.

"You'd get fried by his new silver eye power," Oscar said. "Although, I doubt that would even be necessary considering what we're seeing now."

—

Weiss eyed the fleet, which was departing for a safe distance. She turned back to the bright star floating over the earth. Now that the Coalition's main force was leaving, she could fight without holding back. She looked to her left and right. Her friends were still here. But at least they could probably handle the amount of force she would exert on her environment.

"No matter what," Ruby said, "we're gonna stick with you."

"Yeah," Yang said. "Cuz we're a team."

"More than that," Blake said. "We're friends."

"And friends don't abandon each other," Jaune said. "Right, Snow Angel?"

"That's not her nickname anymore," Nora said. "It's Silver Maiden, remember?"

"More than appropriate," Ren said.

"The energy signature is changing!" Penny said. "I'm detecting...wait, these readings! It's Caliburn!"

Through the brilliance of the phenomenon, they could see the silhouette raise an arm. All of the light surrounding him seemed to be sucked in as it crystallized into the Sword of the Once and Future King. Bedivere was now fully visible, the light surrounding him completely gone. He continued to float in the air, dressed all in black, Caliburn shining brilliantly in his hand.

"I'm getting strange readings from him again," Penny said. "It's not quite Bedivere, but it's not quite the Wraith either."

"Do you mean he's mixed into both?" Jaune said.

"No," Ren said. "I'm sensing something similar. It's neither, but it's also both at the same time."

"A new being," Weiss said, "created by the fusion of the Wraith, Caliburn, and the Nexus with Bedivere as the core holding them all together. This is his purest form, the incarnation of his ideals brought into the real world corrupted by the grief and despair of hundreds of millions of souls of the damned."

Ruby turned to her. She was crying as she spoke these words. "Weiss? Are you okay?" she asked.

"I'll be fine," Weiss said as she wiped away her tears. "I won't let anything happen to this world. Even if...even if I have to give my life for it."

"Fuck that," Yang said. "Nobody's dying today. Not if I can help it."

"As long as we stick together," Blake said.

—

"I have to go," Sun said, his voice grave.

"Huh?" Hollie said.

"I need to go be with her."

"Wait! You can't!"

"Hollie, I know you understand why I have to do this. If Qrow were down there, you'd do the same thing, wouldn't you?"

She turned away, tears forming in her eyes.

"Don't worry. I'll bring Blake back. And everybody else. After all, the old guys let me be the leader of Team STRQ for a little bit. I wouldn't deserve that title if I didn't go and be a hero, would I?"

"Take care of yourself," Winter said.

"I will," he said, turning to her. "And I'll make sure your sis gets out alive, too. We're all gonna survive, and we'll even save that jackass Bedivere."

A hand placed itself on his shoulder. He turned around to face Qrow.

"Here's a little good luck for you, kid," he said.

Sun smiled. "Thanks, old man."

"Ha-ha, fuck you, too, son."

"Son, or Sun?" Raven said with a smirk.

"No," Tai said. "No, no, no. Don't tell me Yang got it from you."

"Of course not. I just thought I'd try it for once before we all died."

"You really know how to lighten the mood, don't you?" Ironwood said.

"You take care of yourself, you hear?" Kali said, embracing Sun.

"I will, Mrs. B.," he said, embracing her back. He turned to Ghira and gave him a manly hug as well. "Mr. B., I swear to keep Blake safe."

"I know you will, son," he said, putting a hand on his shoulder.

He smiled. "You know, that doesn't sound so bad. Dad."

Ghira frowned. "Don't go pushing your luck."

"All right!" Sun said, running to the launch bay. "Here I go!"

—

"Do you deny salvation?" Bedivere's voice echoed as he brought Caliburn up over his head.

"Your version of salvation is completely fucked!" Yang said.

"Yeah!" Ruby said. "It's totally cuss word!"

"Then, you leave me no choice," he said. " _Sacred Flame_."

The glow of Caliburn transformed into a golden flame. He swing the sword at them and a blast of energy impacted them with the force of a thousand suns. Durandal's protective power alone prevented them from being seared from existence. The desert around them had been burnt into ash by the power of the attack.

"Okay, that was a little scary," Nora said.

"Durandal protected all of us," Penny said, detecting a powerful barrier emerge from the sword.

"Bedivere!" Weiss shouted as Durandal glowed brightly. "I will save you!"

"You believe you can save me?" he said. "I am Salvation itself."

" _Himmelslicht_!"

The bright flash of light from Durandal impacted Bedivere's body, but Caliburn protected him just as Durandal protected her and her friends.

"If you think you can save everyone," Bedivere said as Caliburn began glowing again, "you should remember that you only have half my power. You are but the Shieldmaiden with Durandal. I am the Wraith, Caliburn, and the Nexus combined, with Sir Bedivere of Kameloth as the core of our being."

"If you're so damn strong, why don't you try and take us down?" Jaune said.

" _Scourge of the Heavens_!"

"Wait, what? That's not the same as—"

A massive column of golden fire shot down from the sky, splitting the clouds as it descended upon the group. Weiss held up Durandal to try and block against the strike, but its power was incredible and she was forced to her knees as the entire group felt the attack full force. Durandal only barely managed to keep them alive, but its barrier had been shattered.

"Jaune!" Ren said. "Please! Don't taunt him again!"

"Noted!" Jaune panted.

"You won't beat us that easily," Ruby said, struggling to her feet. " _We_ are the light of this world, not you! You're nothing more than a false hope! You say you're salvation, but all you are is oblivion!"

"Oblivion is freedom," Bedivere's voice echoed.

"No! You don't have the right to decide who lives and who dies! No one has that right!"

"Life is inherently cruel."

"And yet we still find happiness out of it!" Tears began to form in her eyes. "Yes, we lose people we love! That's part of life! You grieve for them, remember them, but then you move on! That's what I've learned after everything we've been through! You don't just give up! You keep moving forward!"

Weiss looked over her shoulder to her best friend.

"I know I'm the youngest out of everyone here, and I know I sure as heck haven't seen the kind of loss you have, Bedivere, but I've found the strength to move on!"

Something stirred deep within the heart of the incarnation which took the form of Bedivere. _Loss_. Yes, that was what it was. It wasn't just losing Arthur and his friends that drove him mad. It was losing 'her' of all things. 'She' had been the one who had kept him together even in the blackest pits of despair. And when he lost 'her', he lost half of himself.

"You're wrong, Ruby," he said, his voice quavering.

"That's," Blake began.

"Bedivere!" Weiss said, catching a glimpse of his soul once again.

"There is no salvation for me!" he cried out before his aura exploded to the surface, manifesting in a suit of armor that was completely black in appearance. None of the silver shine or gold or blue was present. It was purely midnight.

"He really has lost it!" Sun said as he joined them.

"Sun?" Blake yelled as they turned to him.

"C'mon! We've gotta get outta here!"

—

"What in the world?" Ironwood said as the whole command ship began to shake.

"We're several miles out already!" Glynda said. "How is it reaching this far?"

"Hillphire!"

"Uh," Hillphire began, "these readings are off the charts. I don't even know what to call it. It's...it's really big. That's all I can say."

"All we can do now is put our hope in those children," Winter said. "By the gods. What a cruel world to be placing such a burden on the shoulders of those so young."

—

"You think you can save me?" Bedivere yelled again. His voice was hysterical with madness. "You think you have what it takes to cleanse this blackened stain on the cosmos?"

"Bedivere!" Weiss yelled as the ground shook with the force of his power. "You have to stop this! Take control of yourself!"

"I _am_ in control!" he shrieked as tears flew out of his eyes. "I am in _perfect_ control! _Darkness Flame_!"

"D-Darkness?" Jaune said. "What?"

" _Dauerhafte Seele_!" Weiss cried as she summoned Durandal's most powerful barrier.

The black column of fire impacted Durandal's barrier, causing a massive explosion that stripped the upper layer of earth within a ten-mile radius. Durandal's barrier collapsed completely leaving them vulnerable to another attack.

Bedivere's form had changed. It was unmistakable. The essence of the Wraith was fully manifested on the outside. It was now the dominant persona, its face a perfect mix of anger, hatred, sadness, hysteria, everything all at once. But the one thing that rose above all of that was a fixed resolve to end all things.

The Wraith's full power manifested itself on the outside in the form of a pair of enormous, black, wing-like extensions from its back, made of pure energy. The presence alone was enough to create a powerful pressure that pushed against them, keeping everyone from coming within a certain range.

"Guys," Sun said, gathering everyone up except for Weiss. "Let's go."

"We're not leaving Weiss!" Ruby said.

"We have to. She can't fight at full power with us so close by."

"Sun's right," Yang said. "We need to give her room."

Ruby looked around at everyone. They were all in agreement. Weiss needed room to spread her own wings and fight back at full power.

"I just hope the world doesn't break apart when they do start to fight," Blake said as she led the way out of the area.

—

"Here it is," Hillphire said, watching through binoculars. "It's about to begin."

"The final battle for all of Remnant," Hollie said.

"You can do it, Weiss," Winter said quietly. "I believe in you."

"We all believe in you, Silver Maiden," Oscar said.

—

" _Darkness Flame_!"

" _Himmelslicht_!"

The powerful attacks from Caliburn and Durandal met full force, generating a blast so energetic that it was visible from space. The entire center of this uninhabited continent was rendered free of all geographic features. For a hundred miles, mountains and valleys had been evened out, the blast eroding everything into a massive, flat desert.

Those in the sky only survived thanks to being a safe enough distance away while those on the ground managed to keep from being atomized by staying low and fully reinforcing their protective auras, which dwindled to near-nothing from the force of the shockwave. Ruby was the first to turn back to the battle. Weiss had begun to transform as well, her full power showing itself on the surface as a pair of white wings as massive as the Wraith's black wings, wings made of pure energy.

"We should probably keep our distance," Blake said as they continued to flee.

"How far is safe, though?" Jaune said. "I mean, look around. That blast just now leveled this entire desert. Those mountains that were just over there are gone, too."

"Just keep going!" Nora said.

—

"Bedivere," Weiss said, her voice echoing across the continent. "I _will_ save you."

"Have you not been paying attention?" his voice also echoed. "I am beyond salvation."

"How many times do I need to repeat myself? _No one_ is beyond salvation."

"Oh, Weiss. Never let go of your naïve optimism. That's what I love so much about you."

She readied Durandal for battle.

"Now," he said, readying Caliburn. "Let's finish this!"


	50. Chapter L

CHAPTER L

 _Für Alle Ewigkeit_

The battle between the Silver Maiden and the Wraith was apocalyptic in scale. At this point in her evolution, Weiss had fully embraced her destiny and her power was equal to Bedivere's. Her swordsmanship was matched only by his and this showed in the stalemate between them. She no longer needed Dust either, fully capable of harnessing the same power as Bedivere, tapping directly into the power of the Shieldmaiden. Even her aura was no longer the same, fully manifested in the glistening silver and gold armor that covered her from head to toe.

Each blow Durandal and Caliburn traded resulted in explosions that shook the earth, knocking over anything that wasn't anchored in place. Every so often, the Wraith would launch an assault with magic, which Weiss countered with an equally powerful attack of her own.

"This amount of power is incredible," Hillphire said as he watched the battle through a monitor.

The Coalition's airships maintained a safe distance away from the clash between these two titanic superpowers. Even though they were so far that the horizon obscured the epicenter of the fight, the shockwaves from each time their swords met shook the entire air fleet, with a number of the blasts threatening to knock down some of the ships.

"What is the rest of Team RWBY and JNPR still doing down there?" Hollie said, watching anxiously from her own vantage point. She turned to her right. Qrow was right beside her, silently observing.

—

The rest of Team RWBY stood at the edge of the newly-created flat desert alongside Team JNPR and Sun. This was as far as they could get without losing sight of the battle altogether. Even though they were too far to see any detail with the naked eye, the clashes between the swords were so powerful that brilliant explosions of light indicated just what was going on.

Eventually, the fight grew to such an intensity that natural disasters began to spring up due to the power exerted by the two swords upon the environment. Two volcanoes rose near the fight, spewing smoke and ash and lava everywhere before another sword clash completely obliterated both, replacing them with a thunderstorm that was similarly dispelled by their fight.

"This is insane," Jaune said. "If this goes on any longer, I think they're gonna change the shape of the planet."

"Well, they've already change the shape of the continent," Ren said. "I wouldn't say that's too far-fetched."

The cataclysmic event was not limited to just the local area. What the Coalition forces here were unaware of was the fact that the clashing of Caliburn and Durandal caused massive changes throughout the entire globe, even extending into Salem's realm. Mountain ranges were shifted several meters, with some growing taller and others shrinking. Rivers were redirected, the shapes of lakes altered. Islands appeared and disappeared.

"I should have seen through that damned Wraith," Dr. Watts said as he and his allies watched the landscape change all around them. "Now we are at risk of losing as well."

"You have such little faith," Salem said. "We underestimated that girl once before. Let's not do it again."

"Even if she wins against him, though, we're next on her list," Adam said.

"Are you scared?" Cinder said, making him growl. "Cuz if you are, you can stand behind me and the other two Maidens. We'll protect you."

"Shut up, Cinder."

"Even if the Silver Maiden were to gain victory," Salem began, "we still have the upper hand. Without their precious knight protecting them, it'll be three against two. Weiss will undoubtedly be in no condition to continue fighting after this battle and the Spring Maiden's power is no match for the combined might of Winter, Summer, and Fall."

"That's assuming she wins," Dr. Watts said. "Honestly, it could go either way from here."

—

"You've grown into your power so much," the Wraith said as they entered a sword deadlock, the darkened Caliburn and the brightly shining Durandal grinding against one another. "I still remember when we first met, how you relied on me every single day."

"Not on you," Weiss said, ending the deadlock with a powerful swing. "On Bedivere!"

The Wraith grinned as he sprung forward, commencing another flurry of equally matched swordsmanship from the two. Weiss found an opening and swung, but the Wraith was too quick and he vanished, appearing behind her. She, too, vanished in a burst of light to dodge his downward attack, reappearing above to start yet another stalemate. He swung hard enough to knock her out of the air down to the ground and immediately brought his sword up.

" _Darkness Flame_!" he yelled as he swung Caliburn to unleash a powerful attack, the perversion of its _Sacred Flame_.

"How dare you tarnish the light of Caliburn?" Weiss cried out before swinging Durandal to counter with her own attack. " _Himmelslicht_!"

—

The collision resulted in a flash of light and a blast that further eroded the ground for miles, reaching all the way to where Team RWBY and JNPR and Sun stood. The energy release extended to the Coalition fleet, knocking a few of the ships out of the sky. Meanwhile, on the ground, Teams RWBY and JNPR dug their weapons into the ground to keep from getting blown away by this latest clash.

"I think we should probably get outta here!" Sun yelled.

"No!" Ruby yelled back. "We are _not_ abandoning Weiss and Bedivere!"

"Ruby's right!" Blake said. "We're not gonna leave our friends behind!"

—

"So, that still wasn't enough," the Wraith said, his dark aura surfacing from the separations between his armor segments. "I guess we'll have to dial it up a notch!"

Weiss recognized this power. The Labyrinth was about to be summoned into the world again, which she could not allow. Summoning a vast amount of power, Weiss projected a glyph behind her, which propelled her at hypersonic speeds to the Wraith. A barrier had formed around him to provide protection during his formation of the Labyrinth, but she called upon Durandal's full power to break through this shield.

" _Melancholie der Engel_!"

"What!" the Wraith cried out as his barrier was shattered and the full force of Durandal's strike met his armor, breaking his chest plate once and for all.

The Wraith was thrown out of the sky and down to the ground, tumbling several times before coming to rest on one knee. He looked up at Weiss, who was still floating up in the air, the two silver wings of light on her back glowing more brightly than ever.

He caught himself smiling. This is exactly how it should be, his corrupted self clashing with the Shieldmaiden, her power as vast as his own, determining the destiny of the entire planet with their final battle. Regardless of the outcome of this confrontation, he was glad to have borne witness to such a magnificent sight. The Silver Maiden was the most beautiful thing he had ever laid eyes on.

—

"The energy readings are off the charts," Hillphire said. "Whatever is going on out there, it's more than our machines can handle."

Ironwood gave the signal for the fleet to withdraw.

"Why are we leaving?" Hollie demanded.

"We've lost enough ships to that thing," he said. "I am not going to risk anymo—"

"That _thing_ is Weiss Schnee," Qrow said sternly. "And if you think I'm gonna let you abandon her like this, you'd better think again."

"You're going to threaten me?"

"You're damn right I am," he said before drawing his weapon and fully forming it into a scythe. Hollie also drew her weapon, switching it to its axe form. They were joined by Raven, Tai, Oscar, Vernal, and even the Belladonnas.

All around the bridge, soldiers had their weapons aimed at the group. At the last moment, Hillphire activated his trump card. What appeared to be a single sword at his side split up into a multitude of weapons of all types, both melee types and firearms. Each one of the weapons was pointed at a soldier.

"I am not abandoning my friends either," Hillphire said.

Ironwood held up a hand before gesturing for his men to stand down. "Qrow, you are going to be the death of us all," he walked over to a communication terminal. "This is Ironwood. The Coalition fleet is to withdraw from the area immediately except for this flagship. I repeat, all ships are to withdraw except for the flagship." He switched the communications system to ship-wide announcement. "This is Ironwood. All nonessential personnel, are to evacuate immediately and join the fleet withdrawal. I repeat, nonessential personnel, leave the ship and join the rest of the fleet."

"So you're gonna stay, huh?" Qrow said, returning his weapon to his back.

"Of course I am," Ironwood said. "You said it yourself. She's a Schnee. I'm not going to abandon her."

—

"Honestly, I can't believe what I'm watching," Sun said.

"Me neither," Ren said. "To think that such a level of power could exist, it's too much."

"I wonder if this is what it looks like when gods fight," Nora said.

"Probably," Jaune said. "Penny, what are you picking up from the battle?"

"All sorts of exotic particles that shouldn't exist in the real world," Penny said. "There's...I don't know. I'm picking up short-lived stuff that only existed at the beginning of the universe, but then there's also a lot of stuff that shouldn't exist at all."

"Pure magic," Blake said.

"That's the only thing I can think of."

"C'mon, Weiss," Ruby said, clenching her fists.

Yang looked over at her. She took her hand in hers and Ruby looked at her. Yang gave her a smile.

"She'll get through this," Yang said, turning to Blake before holding her hand as well.

Blake and Ruby returned her smile. Sun, too, joined the human chain, linking up Team RWBY and JNPR together.

—

Weiss and the Wraith entered into another clash of swords, one that seemed not to have any end in sight. Even though she had fully ascended to her highest level of power, the Wraith's own energy reserves seemed limitless. If this fight were to continue, it would threaten the very existence of the entire world.

They fell into another deadlock between swords, the pure light of Durandal burning against the pure Darkness exuded by Caliburn. Weiss could feel Caliburn crying out to her, begging for her to get rid of this darkness that consumed it. How she would do that, she had no idea.

"It's time to put an end to all this," the Wraith said as his body exploded with power. " _Har_..."

This was it, the most powerful attack available to both Caliburn and Durandal, and this Wraith was going to unleash it. It was a forbidden power that even the true bearers of these swords never used unless it was the direst of emergencies, for this phenomenon, which was the physical embodiment of the Apocalypse, had the power to annihilate entire worlds if undefended. At point blank, even the Silver Maiden at her full power would be disintegrated by the blast wave.

" _Megiddo_!"

An intense flash of what could not be called light or dark or anything perceptible by the human mind emerged from the epicenter of the phenomenon, expanding into a gigantic sphere that would swallow a chunk of the earth before slowly shrinking again and disappearing.

The two warriors of Darkness and Light were facing off with one another, floating over the shallow crater that had been carved out by the _Har Megiddo_. The Wraith panted as he stared Weiss in the eye. She, too, was panting.

"You also used the _Har Megiddo_ ," he managed.

She didn't answer. She could barely hold Durandal up and if he were to unleash another powerful attack like that, she would likely crumple underneath it. But the Wraith was in no better shape than she was. Finally, the end of this battle was in sight. She wouldn't lose focus now, not when there were millions of people counting on her to win. She was their shield and the only thing standing between them and annihilation.

But more importantly, she could sense her friends behind her, and the thought of losing them was something she couldn't bear.

"Are you ready?" the Wraith asked.

His voice had none of the old malice that had been there. It almost felt as though her knight were back.

"Bedivere?" she said, her voice breaking.

The Wraith shook his head. "He's still in here, screaming in my head to stop all this, of course."

"Then, let him back out. Please."

"You know I can't do that. Not because I don't want to, but because it simply isn't possible. The light shall follow the darkness when it is time, not a moment sooner, nor a moment later. Everything happens in its time, Silver Maiden. Haven't you learned this yet?"

"I guess I'm still sort of a rebel against being told what to do and which path to follow."

He chuckled. "That's the Weiss I've come to know. Keep fighting for your own beliefs. Stick true to your own path."

"Is this the Darkness talking?"

He smiled. "Darkness, Light, it's all meaningless in the end. We all walk in sunlight and shadows all the time. What truly matters is that we stay on the path that we have decided for ourselves. It is Bedivere's sincerest wish that you stay true to your ideals. I share this wish with him. The difference between us is that I don't care which ideals you cling to, so long as they are truly your own."

"Bedivere, don't do this," Weiss begged. "You can stop all this."

"He has no more power to force the sun to rise than I do to force it to set." He brought up Caliburn. "But we still have one more thing to do. One final score to settle."

She shook her head, tears flying out in either direction. "There is no score to settle. Just, put down your sword and come to me."

"I can't do that."

"Yes, you can!" She threw Durandal to the ground, opening her arms wide.

"Pick up your sword."

"No."

He prepared to dash at her.

"If you're going to kill me, then do it. Because I am not going to kill you, Bedivere. Never you."

The Wraith trembled as he held Caliburn out toward her. The blackness of the sword was starting to break, giving way to light beneath. But still it was too little, too late. Weiss closed her eyes, awaiting the attack, but as he dashed at her, something appeared to block his strike. Weiss looked on at a new weapon that had manifested in the space between her and the Wraith. Durandal was still on the ground, but it did not beckon to her anymore. This spear before her was the one calling.

"Lance of Longinus!" the Wraith cried out.

Weiss slowly reached out to touch the spear and the moment she grasped it, she and the Wraith were engaged in a high-speed duel, one between a spearman and a swordsman. She should have had the advantage with her new weapon and all of that raw power that now flowed through it and into her, but her resolve was nowhere near what it was when the battle first began. She had no desire in her heart to hurt this man, especially knowing that Bedivere was just beneath the surface, so close to her that his Wraith was beginning to reflect his own spirit.

"Why are you not fighting at your fullest?" the Wraith demanded.

"Because I don't want to," Weiss said, blocking all of his attacks yet returning no strikes of her own.

"If you will not defend yourself," the Wraith said, once again showing his full form and spreading those blackened wings, "then I shall corrupt you and everyone you love to the core!"

Weiss gasped, just barely managing to unleash her own power and defending against a flurry of attacks. Bedivere's presence was gone again, buried underneath this monstrosity of pure hatred and corruption. She was not going to allow him to reach her friends. She didn't care what happened to her own self, but Ruby, Blake, Yang, Sun, Jaune, Nora, Penny, Ren, all of them, they were too precious to her to allow to fall into this pit of everlasting darkness.

As she and the Wraith prepared for one final clash, the Lance of Longinus called out to her.

 _Are you lending me your power_? she asked it.

It pulsed in her hand.

 _I understand._

"Now, perish with all of your friends!" the Wraith shrieked as he brought a fully blackened Caliburn up to the sky. " _Scourge of the Heavens_!"

Weiss swung the Lance of Longinus around swiftly and gracefully, ending with a final outward swing. " _Shards of Destiny_!"

The spears of light pierced through Caliburn's corruption, causing its attack to break before ever forming. Each of the spears impacted all of the Wraith's armor, shattering his defenses completely and causing him to drop Caliburn to the ground as he fell to his knees. Weiss immediately rushed to him.

"Bedivere!"

"Weiss," he managed.

"You're back!" She threw her arms all over him, but he pushed her away, looking into her pale blue eyes. He was sweating, trembling violently.

"I can only hold him back for so long," he managed. "You must plunge the Spear of Destiny into my heart. Only that will destroy the Wraith forever."

She shook her head. "I told you that I won't be the one to kill you. I meant it."

"Weiss, there is much more to this world than you and me. Did you not swear to guard not only Remnant, but your friends as well?"

She looked deeply into his hazel eyes. "I don't want to lose you."

He smiled. "Nor I you. And this is why you must kill the Wraith, before it can do further harm to your world."

"I am not going to kill you, Bedivere!"

"And you would damn the rest of the world in the process? Just to cling to a fleeting existence as my own?"

Her "Yes!" was the most adamant thing she had ever said out loud. There wasn't a single doubt in her mind. She would be willing to plunge the entire world into Hell if it meant having the chance to keep him.

Bedivere felt all of this. Everything had gone according to the Wraith's plan. Tearing them apart early on only strengthened the bond between them even more, planting in her mind the utter dread of losing him again. Their ordeal had caused her to place him above the world. This was the beginning of the corruption of her soul. She was willing to condemn everyone else for the sake of keeping him. The thought of her light darkening was unbearable to the knight of virtue.

But there was still one more thing he could do, one final recourse to save his own soul and do what he failed to do for his own world.

"Bedivere," she said, tears forming in her eyes. "I love you. I don't want to lose you."

"I, too, love you, Weiss," he said, barely holding the seal together. His Wraith was about to re-emerge at any moment. "There is nothing more important to me in this world than to keep you safe."

She leaned forward, planting a deep, long kiss on his lips, the final kiss she would share with her knight, her true love, Sir Bedivere of Kameloth. Bedivere had taken hold of the Lance of Longinus, that Spear of Destiny which had the authority to judge the gods themselves, whose power transcended the bounds of the cosmos and could rewrite the very fabric of Fate. He plunged that sacred spear of legend into his heart, thus beginning the dissolution of his Wraith and, by extension, his own soul.

Weiss looked down in horror at the blood pouring from his chest. Panic gripped her as she pulled the spear out of his body and threw it to the side.

"Bedivere!" she screamed into his face as she cradled him in her arms. "Why! Why did you do this!"

"Because, Weiss," he managed, "I love you. And the last thing I ever wanted was for you to be corrupted by my darkness. And now that it is gone, your light shall return to you."

She placed her hand over his wound, but even the healing magic she inherited from the Shieldmaiden was not enough. This wound, which was dealt with a weapon that existed before time itself, could be healed by no magic. She pressed her head up against his as she rocked back and forth.

"I didn't care about any of that," she whispered to him. "All I care about is you."

"I know," he said, his voice lowering to a whisper. "Which is why I did what needed to be done. And now, the darkness has been sundered, and the sun shall rise again."

It was true. She could feel no trace of the Wraith within him, only the purest of light deep within his soul, which was fading quickly.

"Bedivere, please, don't leave me," she whimpered.

"Weiss," he said quietly. "Never shall I leave you. Never shall I forsake you. Ich bin dein...für alle...Ewig...Ewig..."

And with that, the First Knight of Kameloth took his final breath.

Weiss stared at him blankly for a good several seconds. "Bedivere?" she said, her voice tiny and barely reaching out beyond her lips. "Bedivere?" she uttered again, her voice now louder and incredulous.

The tears showed no end. Her wailing reached the hearts of everyone within earshot. Her whole body felt empty, drained of all life, of all hope. She wanted to collapse, but it was grief that physically propped her body up, grief and a small flicker of light within her that was quickly fading away.

Her friends finally managed to get to her, able to approach as soon as all that pressure from the battle between the Silver Maiden and the Wraith had vanished. Ruby was the first to fall to her knees, eyes welling up with tears at the sight.

"Oh, no," Nora said, covering her mouth. "Did she...?"

Without a word, Ren took her by the hand and she found herself leaning against him.

The others didn't know what to say or do. Jaune had both his hands on top of his head, eyes closed. Penny felt a tear form in her eye, something that shouldn't have been possible. Sun and Blake were off to the side. Back on the flagship, the bridge was silent. The drones could only capture the images down on the ground, but that didn't stop the grief from washing over everyone looking. Hillphire was silent. Hollie had her hands over her mouth, trying to stifle tears. Qrow was leaning back against the window, eyes closed, arms crossed over his chest. The others were scattered about, dealing with the grief in their own, individual ways. Even Ironwood could barely keep his composure.

Yang was the only one to walk up to Weiss, whose armor was slowly disappearing into fine silver and gold dust, one segment at a time before her chest plate finally vanished. She knelt on the other side of Bedivere's lifeless body, across from Weiss, who was no longer wailing, but still sobbing uncontrollably.

There were no words exchanged between the two friends, but no words were needed. Weiss could feel Yang's companionship just being close to her like this. Yang shared in her grief. After all, Bedivere was her friend also, probably one of her closest friends ever.

 _Weiss_ , Yang thought. _I wish I could tell you everything's gonna be okay. But this time, I don't know. What I do know is that you're strong and you'll recover. It might take a while, but there's always light at the end. We just have to be able to see through all the darkness, that's all._


	51. Chapter LI

CHAPTER LI

 _Keep Moving Forward_

The Coalition Council meeting was not the same without the one who brought it all together. His seat was kept empty to indicate that no one else could take his place. There was only one in the entire world who had any right to take that spot, and she was in no position to lead them.

Winter was the first to let out a sigh. "I just," she began, but couldn't finish her thought.

"Wish you could do something for her?" Sun said.

She nodded.

"Yeah. I think we all feel that way."

"He was," Hillphire began, overcome with tears, "he was the strongest of us all. How could he just..."

"It was because he was strong that he made the decision he did," Raven said. "I did not know him for as long as some of you have, but he was more of a leader than any of us could ever hope to be."

"Nevertheless," Ironwood said, "we must press on. We cannot allow his sacrifice to be for nothing."

"I agree with General Ironwood," Ozpin said. "It is important that we continue on in spite of this unfortunate development."

"Jeez," Sun said. "You guys all talk as if he were nothing more than a member of this council. To me and Hillphire, he was way more than just that. He was a _friend_. And Oscar, I know you can hear me, he was a friend to you, too. And even to you, Oz. I don't get how you can talk about him without even thinking about that."

"Yes, perhaps I was being overly callous," Ozpin said before switching with Oscar, who immediately began to cry. "You're right, Sun. He wasn't just an ally. He was our friend. He was someone who believed in us when we lost all hope and faith in ourselves."

"Our light to guide us out of the Labyrinth," Hillphire said, just barely holding it together.

"I did not know him as long as you three have," Winter said, finally composing herself. "But he and my sister, they shared a bond unlike any other. And, I must admit, I could not help but see him as a friend as well." She paused for a moment, attempting to stifle a tear and just barely holding it back. "But knowing him, he would tell us to keep pressing onward. To finish the fight where he left off."

"To drive back the darkness," Oscar said.

"And to protect Remnant," Hillphire said.

"And that is what we will do," Sun said. "Because I ain't givin' up. If there's anything that son of a bitch taught me, it's how to be stubborn and never give up, even when you're faced with a mountain of shit that can reach to the moon."

There were nods all around the room.

"Has there been any word on those artifacts?" Ironwood asked Glynda.

"None," she said. "That spear and the two swords are nowhere to be found. Hillphire's scanning equipment, which is the only technology we have capable of detecting them, isn't picking up anything at all."

"I get that you're real obsessed with finding those really powerful weapons," Sun said, standing up from his chair. "But you'll have to excuse me. I have a friend's funeral to attend."

Winter also stood up with Oscar and Hillphire, leaving with them. She hadn't even bothered to salute the group as she exited the chamber.

—

Bedivere was given a warrior's funeral. Yang, Jaune, Hillphire, and Hollie had been the ones to light the pyre at all four corners. Caliburn would have been buried along with him, but it had vanished with Durandal and the Lance of Longinus. Even now, the Atlas military continued its search for these artifacts along with Salem's forces, both of whom desired their power for their own purposes. Those who had spent time fighting alongside Durandal and Caliburn understood that such powers would never be granted to just anyone and that the search was pointless.

Weiss was silent throughout the whole funeral, her face and body devoid of emotion. She was still standing there even as the rest of the procession had already left. Team RWBY didn't leave her side, though, particularly Ruby, who stood right next to her as she silently grieved. None of the three would say a word. They would wait for Weiss as she watched the fires dance in the wind, even past the setting of the sun.

When the fire was no more than an ember, she finally turned to her team. Ruby nearly lost it at the sight of her pitiful face. She wanted to give her best friend a hug, but she was afraid that she would break down the moment they touched.

Yang was the one to walk up to Weiss and wrap her arms around her. Weiss was unresponsive, staring off into the distance at nothing in particular. The others could only imagine how it felt, getting half of your heart torn out like that. None of them had any experience in the matter. All they could do was empathize as best they could.

"C'mon," Yang whispered to Weiss, leading her away from the pyre.

—

It had been days since the funeral. Ruby, Blake, and Yang had chosen to stay with their teammate, making themselves at home in her family's big mansion. Winter had given them a room right next to Weiss's so that they could be no more than a few steps away at all times. Each one took turns staying with her. For the first seven days, she did nothing more than stare blankly at the wall, never sleeping, never eating. At some points it seemed like she didn't even breathe.

"Can you blame her?" Blake said as the trio met in the hallway outside her room. "Half of her basically died."

"Yeah," Ruby said, sniffling as she wiped away a tear. "I mean, I just, I wish I could do _something_ , you know?"

"I think we all feel the same way," Sun said as he and Team JNPR walked to them from down the hall.

"Sun," Blake said, running up to him and throwing her arms over him.

"Hey, Blake," he said, returning her embrace. "How's she been?"

"Unresponsive," Yang said.

"We're all staying in there," Ruby said, pointing to their room. "So, yeah."

Penny went over to Ruby and they shared in a long hug.

"I couldn't even imagine losing you," Ren said to Nora, who began to cry.

"Stupid," she said. "Look what you did. I'm crying now."

He turned to her and wrapped his arms around her. She buried her head in his chest, sobbing quietly.

Jaune walked to Weiss's door, giving it a knock before opening. The rest of his team and Sun composed themselves before walking in with him. She was still seated on her bed, staring at the same spot on the wall, doing exactly what she had been doing for the last seven days.

"Hey, Weiss," Jaune said, taking a seat on a nearby chair. "We just...dropped in to say 'hi'."

Weiss didn't respond. The others looked around awkwardly. Everyone wanted to say something to her, but no one knew where to even begin. Weiss had only known him for a little over four months, but those four months were filled from moment to moment with intense bonding. It was no wonder she was basically catatonic now that he was gone.

Jaune took a deep breath before standing up. "We'll be, uh," he managed, almost losing it, "we'll be next door if you need us." His voice broke right on the last word out of his mouth.

Penny stopped and turned around as the rest of her team and Sun left the room. She looked at Weiss for a few seconds before walking over to her and giving her as tight an embrace as she could before leaving the room and closing the door behind her.

—

The next week was even worse than the first. Ruby was the one to pass by Weiss's door when she heard uncontrolled wailing coming from inside. Her heart immediately broke into a million pieces as she leaned against the wall beside the door, covering her face with her hands, crying along with her best friend. Weiss's crying turned into heart-wrenching screaming when Ruby threw the door open and ran to her, throwing her arms around her best friend. The wailing would not die down, not for a moment.

"Why?" she screamed. "Why did you leave me?"

Ruby tightened her grip on her friend as they rocked back and forth together.

"You promised! You said that you would never leave me! That you would never forsake me!"

As much as it ripped her heart into pieces, Ruby would not let go. Weiss was alone now, more alone than she had ever been in her life. And Ruby was not going to allow her to go through this grief without someone by her side.

—

"As if we didn't have enough problems," Glynda began, "Salem has begun mobilizing again. Hillphire's probes have detected a massive horde of Grimm gathering on the continent northwest of Vale."

"Unfortunately, the Coalition is in no condition to fight another enormous battle," Ghira said. "We have gathered as many battle-ready Faunus from Menagerie as we could. Lionheart has assembled all the troops from Mistral as possible, and yet we still are only at half the strength we were before the global calamity caused by the Wraith."

"And their numbers are insane," Hillphire said. "In the weeks since that day, they've already recovered their numbers to full strength. It's only a matter of time before we see Grimm start to appear around the kingdoms once again."

"What course of action do we have available to us?" Ironwood said.

"We've been working on that," Ozpin said. "Salem has gathered many of her followers together, but they still bide their time."

"Perhaps they are wary of the Silver Maiden's power," Kali said. "After all, she lives."

"But greatly diminished," Winter said. "Weiss is...she's in no condition to see battle. Not only has Durandal vanished, she hasn't even left her room since the funeral."

"At risk of sounding heartless," Ironwood began, "we need her back in this fight as soon as possible. Schnee, I give you leave to return home and help spur on her recovery. Are there any objections from the Council?"

There was only silence.

"Go on. Get home. Your family needs you."

Winter stood up and saluted the Council before leaving.

—

It was Blake who passed by Weiss's room on the fourth day of the second week, noticing flashes of light coming from beneath the door. She quietly opened up, watching as Weiss summoned Arma Gigas, quickly dismissing him and attempting the summon again, only for the same suit of armor to show up. This marked the third day in a row that Weiss spent trying to summon Bedivere through her glyphs, but no matter how many times she succeeded at summoning Arma Gigas, the Knight of Kameloth never materialized.

"Come _on_!" she cried as she fell to her knees, the glyph disappearing.

Blake stood her ground. She figured Weiss would continue to try summoning him again. Part of her held out hope that she would succeed, but she also wasn't surprised when her friend failed to call him back to their world. That Spear of Destiny was quite the powerful weapon. It probably erased his essence from the universe forever.

Blake caught herself crying at her own thought and she watched as Weiss began to sob, tears lightly falling from her eyes to the carpet. Blake walked over to her before wrapping her arms around her from behind.

"Blake," Weiss said, her voice shaking. "I'm never gonna see him again, am I?"

"Don't say that," Blake's own voice cracked.

"But it's true. He's gone forever."

They began rocking back and forth together as Weiss finally let it all out, the ache, the despair, the guilt. Until the very end, he put his virtue above everything, even his love for her. He could not bear failing the world a second time and even though Weiss hated him for leaving her like that, part of her understood why he did what he did. After all, she wanted to make the Schnee name worth speaking again, to undo years of poor treatment of Dust mine workers and questionable ethics. Had she been in his shoes, she might have done the exact same thing.

Even still, none of that could put an end to the emptiness in her heart.

—

"Still no trace of it?" Ironwood said to one of his officers.

"No, sir, we haven't picked up any of those previous readings."

"We must find them before Salem's forces do."

"You know what you're doing is pointless, right, Jimmy?" Qrow said as he approached them with Hollie in tow. "Ask the blacksmith. He knows what those things are all about."

"They're not real," Hillphire said as he joined the group. "At least, not according to our normal usage of the word. Both Durandal and Caliburn are physical manifestations of some as of yet unknown phenomenon. They aren't actually swords, but rather anomalous objects that appear as swords to the human eye. The same goes for the last weapon that appeared. That spear. Even if we could locate them, I would advise against meddling with them. What they are goes beyond the understanding of mortals."

"We still need to keep them out of the enemy's hands," Ironwood said.

"That won't be necessary," Hollie said. "I've seen the swords for myself and I can tell you that they don't need us to protect them. They're perfectly capable of defending themselves."

"Even still, we cannot ignore this."

—

It had been two weeks since they had buried the Knight of Kameloth. Weiss hadn't left her room even once, spending her days in total isolation. Only Winter, Sun, Team RWBY, and Team JNPR were permitted in her chambers. Although, perhaps that wasn't true at all. Weiss never gave instructions to anyone. Her interactions had been limited purely to others who would initiate contact, which was mostly Team RWBY and Winter.

Yang walked into her room to check up on her. Weiss was sleeping, facing the other direction. She went over to the bed, pulling the covers over her before going to her bathroom to tidy up. She was emptying the trash when she saw something peculiar in the bin. She pulled it out and gasped.

It was a pregnancy test.

And it was positive.

—

"You're sure about this?" Winter said as she and the others congregated.

"I'm a girl," Yang said. "I know how to read this fucking thing."

Winter took the test from her hand. There was no doubt. It was positive. She began to march away when Yang grabbed her by the wrist.

"I don't think we should do anything right now," she said sternly.

"She's _my_ sister," Winter said.

"And _we_ have been through more shit with her than you have."

Winter looked down at the ground. Yang was right, of course. They saw life and death together, gain and loss, joy and sorrow. Still, she was her blood, and she had a duty.

"I will concede to you for the time being," Winter said. "But sooner or later, we need to handle this."

"I think we should let Weiss handle it herself," Ruby said. "I mean, that's kind of a big deal. And a personal one."

"But, I can't just..." Winter said before putting a hand to her forehead. "She's...I just..." She found herself crying.

"We're here for you, too," Penny said, placing a hand on her shoulder.

—

Weiss woke up from her short nap. She sniffled, wiping dried tears from her eyes. She got up to wash her face in her bathroom and decided to take another test, which was positive yet again, and another test, which was still positive.

She sighed heavily, looking up at the ceiling as she sat on her toilet's lid. A single tear fell from her eye and she wiped it away. She got up and went back to her room, staring at herself in the mirror. He would never return her gaze through the mirror ever again. She was alone. Alone forever.

"You son of a bitch," she said quietly, balling her hands into fists as tears began to fall from her eyes. "How dare you! How could you leave me like that?" She fell to all fours, collapsing under the weight of her grief. She put a hand to her abdomen. "How could you leave _us_? What am I gonna tell your child? How am I...how do I raise this baby alone?"

She lay on her side, curling up into a ball, continuing to squeeze out tears as she shut her eyes. She felt for her locket, which hung around her neck, and opened it up to look at their picture one last time before reading the inscription on the right.

 _Ich bin dein für alle Ewigkeit._

She closed the locket, clutching it tightly to her chest. She reached for her scroll and went through the pictures they had taken at the festival in Mistral and then at the ones they had taken after their victory at Beacon Academy. The last picture in the album was of him standing right behind her in a frame that reflected the first time they had stood before a mirror together, him standing just behind her to her right, both of them wearing neutral facial expressions to top off the armor that covered their bodies.

She shut off her scroll before standing up, facing herself in the mirror. He was no longer here. But what would he say if he could see her now?

 _He'd tell me to keep moving forward, that staying in one spot is strategically stupid, and that I still had so much to live for._

The last part was the truest. She had far too much to live for now, especially with this new life growing inside of her. She looked over at her bed. Myrtenaster leaned against one of the posts. She grabbed her weapon, posing with it in front of her mirror.

For the first time in what felt like much too long, she could feel the strength returning to her body, the light shining in her soul.

—

The Coalition Council convened again to deliberate about the incessant Grimm attacks happening all over the globe. Mistral was under siege right this moment and Grimm were approaching Vale, Vacuo, Atlas, Mistral, and Menagerie.

"It's starting to look bad out there, isn't it?" Qrow said.

"We're losing on every front," Glynda said. "The enemy are numerous and we don't have a countermeasure against anything they're throwing at us now."

"What are our options?" Ironwood asked the group.

"From what I hear," Hillphire began, "Salem herself has finally surfaced. We can bring the fight to her and end it once and for all."

"That basically means throwing everything we've got at her," Tai said. "Our chances of success are in the single digits, and even if we were to manage a win by some miracle, it would be a pyrrhic victory. Civilization would be hurled back to the stone ages."

"But humankind has endured this long," Ozpin said. "Even if modern civilization were to collapse, having Salem and the Grimm out of the picture would mean humanity would have the chance to rebuild stronger than ever."

"I admire your optimism," Ironwood said. "It's always been the thing that holds all of our plans together."

"It won't be so much of a gamble if we lured her to a favorable battlefield," Hillphire said. "Even if her forces were to outnumber us ten to one, we could use the terrain to nullify any numerical advantage she may have over us."

"We'd still have to send the strongest teams we have against her directly," Ghira said. "Salem is no pushover."

"It'll be Teams RWBY and JNPR, then," Ozpin said.

"You still trust in those kids, do you?" Raven said.

"I do. And have you not noticed? Those eight are not children anymore. They've seen as much as we have. If anyone can win this, it's them."

"You guys have a lot of hope left," Qrow said. "Honestly, I can't decide whether it's refreshing or stupid."

—

Ruby was on her way to Weiss's room to bring her some food when the latter walked out of her room, Myrtenaster in hand.

"Weiss!" Ruby said, setting the platter down on a nearby table before running to her. "Where are you going?"

"Let's go train," Weiss said.

"Huh?"

"We need to be ready to get back into battle at any time."

"But, Weiss..."

"Ruby," Weiss said with a smile as she put her hand on her best friend's shoulder. "I'm okay now."

Ruby looked up at her for a bit before giving her a quick hug. "Oh, Weiss, I'm so sorry."

"Thank you, Ruby. You've been there with me from the beginning."

"That's what BFFs are for, right?"

"Yeah. C'mon, we both have some catching up to do."

—

Winter was training with the others when she turned to the door. Weiss was walking in with Ruby.

"Weiss!" Winter said, running to her. The training stopped. "What are you doing here?"

"Getting back into battle mode," Weiss said, her voice resolute.

"B-But you're—"

"Itching to kill something."

"Whoa," Yang said. "I mean, whoa."

"Team JNPR, are you ready?" Weiss said, squaring off with them.

"All of us at once?" Jaune said.

"Are you scared of the Silver Maiden?"

"Uh, I mean—"

Weiss brought up Myrtenaster, preparing for battle.

"Where's, uh, Durandal?" Nora said. "And your armor?"

Weiss flinched. That was a clear reminder that she no longer had Bedivere. The armor wouldn't surface anymore. Myrtenaster would not transform into Durandal anymore. He truly was gone from her.

But she had to keep moving forward. She had an incredibly personal reason to continue marching on. She put a hand to her abdomen.

"I will not fail," she mumbled.

There was an explosion outside.

"No!" Winter yelled. "They've already made it to the city!"

—

The capital of Atlas was under siege by the Grimm, hordes of which made it even through the thick snowfields of Solitas.

 _"This is Salem's revenge on us for trying to attack her."_

 _"We should've never gotten involved!"_

 _"We were just fine staying out of the fight!"_

"Fools!" Winter said. "Do none of you realize that this has been Salem's goal from the beginning? Stop being cowards and fight back!"

She looked to her side. Teams RWBY and JNPR along with Sun were joining in the fight. She ran up to Weiss.

"Weiss, what are you doing out here?" she said.

"I am the Shield of Remnant," she said without looking at her. "I made a vow to protect this world."

"No! I cannot allow it! I won't let you throw your life away along with the life of your unborn child!"

Everyone turned to them.

"Weiss, I did not mean..."

"I had a feeling someone would find those tests," Weiss said, putting a hand to her abdomen. "But that is exactly why I cannot back down anymore. Fighting for the people of Remnant, that was one thing, but now I'm fighting for something much more personal. I am fighting for the right of his child to live!"

Her team shielded their faces as a force blew from her body. She didn't change in appearance on the outside, but they all felt a power pulsing from deep within her core.

"I might have lost a lot," Weiss said, holding Myrtenaster out toward the approaching hordes, "but I have gained so much more! _Hardened Defense_!"

A brownish light bathed her and her allies, increasing their resilience.

" _Steel Knuckle_!"

The same light washed over everyone, increasing their offensive strength.

"Now, all of you, you are the Shield of Remnant! Never give up hope! _Rain of Restoration_!"

A light rain of magic fell upon the defense teams, lifting up their spirits and healing any wounds they had incurred.

"She still has her magic," Ren said.

"Even though she lost Durandal and her armor," Jaune said.

"Her aura's as strong as ever, too," Penny said.

"It's like our two worlds came together," Blake said.

"Kinda like what we've been trying to do, huh?" Sun said.

Blake returned his smile.

"C'mon, Weiss!" Ruby said excitedly. "Show these Grimm what else you got!"

Weiss stepped forward ahead of the defense teams, standing between them and the incoming hordes. She looked at her right hand, on the back of which appeared the brown-colored Terra Rune, the higher variant of the Earth Rune. She knelt to the ground, balancing herself with Myrtenaster, as she reached out with her right hand.

" _Erdbeben_ ," she whispered before slapping the tundra with her hand.

A powerful earthquake shot out from her palm into the direction of the approaching Grimm. The ground opened up at some places, swallowing up those monsters of darkness, before closing up again. Her show of power emboldened Atlas's defenders even more than any magic uplifting spell could ever manage.

"All right!" Yang said, smashing her fists together. "Let's go kick some Grimm ass!"


	52. Epilogue

EPILOGUE

The final confrontation with Salem's forces was at hand. Hundreds of thousands of Grimm, including the Omega, had gathered with her leading the charge from the very front. While other hordes of Grimm assaulted the four kingdoms, Salem herself was going to personally wipe out the Coalition, which gathered the bulk of its might in the great fields of the northwestern continent again, intent on invading her world for sure this time and destroy everything within.

Teams RWBY and JNPR advanced slowly across the vast expanse of flat earth created by the clash between Caliburn and Durandal three months ago. Team STRQ was just behind them along with Hillphire, Hollie, and everyone else. They led the vanguard to meet with Salem's numberless Grimm in this forsaken wasteland, which had yet to recover from the calamity three months prior. Once they reached the designated line, they halted. Weiss was the only one to continue forward, Myrtenaster in hand and ready for battle. She placed her free hand on her abdomen. She was already starting to show.

Winter had long ago stopped trying to dissuade her. Even though the elder sister wanted to do everything she could to protect the younger, there was no stopping this nascent maternal instinct. Weiss was fighting not just for Remnant, but for her child's right to have a future.

"So, the dreaded Silver Maiden wishes to challenge me?" Salem said with a confident grin on her face. Her forces outnumbered the Coalition by five to one.

Weiss said nothing as she stopped in the middle of the battlefield.

"Do you wish to rejoin your knight so soon?"

Weiss maintained her silence. After a few seconds of concentration, she brought up Myrtenaster, creating a summoning glyph on the ground before her. To the awe of everyone watching, her weapon began transforming. In moments, Myrtenaster had taken the form of Durandal, complete with its power and radiance. Weiss's body had also been transformed. She was once again donning her silver and gold armor, the Seal of the Schnee Family emblazoned in gold on her chest and a roaring golden dragon embroidered on the center of the blue cape on her back.

She pointed Durandal directly at the center of the summoning glyph, calling forth her Knight. There was a twinkle of light up in the sky, like a star falling from the heavens, hurtling toward the battlefield at speeds rivaling that of a comet.

A sword.

It was Caliburn.

And out of the center of that summoning glyph emerged an arm to catch the sword, an arm covered from the shoulder up to the wrist with the markings of a magical Nexus.


End file.
